May the Best Friends Win
by Rowanoak23
Summary: Taking place a month after the conclusion of "Rainbooms and Royalty," Rainbow Dash is settling into her new life in Ponyville. On the whole, it's great! But as some minor tensions crop up at her job and her new life, an old friend comes into town to turn everything upside down. What's a pony to do? [All chapters uploaded together. To read them in the original, visit ]


**MAY THE BEST FRIENDS WIN**

Rainbow Dash never had a chance. None. She never even heard it coming. Her attacker knew just where to step to avoid the squeaky floor boards that would otherwise have given away her presence. The cyan pegasus was snoring gently, curled up in her bed and snuggled into her blanket, with a beatific smile on her muzzle, completely oblivious to everything but her dreams.

She was flying with the Wonderbolts through the splendid summer skies. The wind was in her mane, spreading out behind her in a rainbow contrail that cut through the crystal clear air. While hardly a unique dream for Rainbow, it was still a most pleasant one. Too bad the rule seems to be that the more pleasant the dream, the more abrupt the end of it.

Rainbow's attacker crouched down, eyes glinting in the morning light as she landed atop the pegasus' belly, forcing her awake and forcing the air out of her lungs in one fell swoop; announcing her presence in a voice that radiated doom to the hopes of any peacefully sleeping ponies. "Good morning Rainbow Dash!" Dinky Doo let out a giggle as the startled Rainbow Dash stirred, flailing her hooves comically as the little filly sat atop her belly. "Momma says its time for you to get up and go to work!"

An inarticulate moan greeted this pronouncement as Rainbow buried her head back in her pillow, drawing up the covers to hide her head. "Hnrrnnrg." She mumbled which Dinky—having practice at this—correctly translated as meaning 'I'm afraid it's still a bit too early for me, Dinky would you be a dear and ask your mother to wake me up in another two or three hours? Thank you.'

Dinky hopped up and down on Rainbow's tummy. "Wake up wake up waaaaaake uuuup!" She chanted, wiggling her hooves as she jumped up. "Momma made you a special breakfast but she said if you don't go downstairs now you won't get any before you have to go kick the clouds away!"

Unable to resist the eager filly tap dancing on her belly—and, incidentally, on her bladder—Rainbow groaned as she started to sit up. "Aright, Dinks I'm up, I'm up already." The bouncing unicorn filly mercifully stopped jumping on Rainbow Dash and instead settled for leaping on the bed. "Special breakfast, huh?" The blue pony inquired.

"A huh!" Dinky nodded. "Momma says she made pancakes and muffins with lotsa syrup and apple cider but you won't get any if you don't get downstairs now."

Rainbow Dash stretched, sighing in relief as she felt her joints crack and pop as she yawned out her tiredness in one last great big yawn. "Oourrh! You're mom sure knows how to make breakfast."

Dinky nodded. "Ya huh! It was really good!"

"So you ate already squirt?" Rainbow flexed her wings, straightening the odd crooked feather with her teeth. "What're you up to now?"

In response, the unicorn filly just snuggled into the warm blanket and pillow Rainbow Dash was in the process of vacating. "I'm gonna stay here where it's nice and warm!"

"Heeey! No fair!" Rainbow pouted, imitating the behavior of a little filly shockingly well. "If I have to get up, then you do too!"

"Nope!" Dinky snuggled into the blankets like Rainbow Dash had a moment earlier and buried her face in the pillow, closing her eyes. "I can't hear you, I'm sleeping! Ah feeew, ah feeew." She threw in a few fake snores just to add to the effect, but ruined it by peeking and giggling.

Not one to accept defeat easily, Rainbow Dash stretched out her hooves menacingly. "All right Dinks, you asked for it!" She hopped back into bed and began tickling the little filly with her hooves.

"Aheheheheee!" The little pony squeaked, giggling. "Noooo! I sleepin'!"

"If I don't get to sleep, then nopony does!" Rainbow declared tossing in an evil laugh for good measure. "Mwahahahaa!"

Their good natured fun was interrupted by a pair of golden eyes that managed to take in the whole scene (and perhaps an extra 20% of the room) without even turning her head. "Rainbow Dash!" The gray blond-maned pegasus attached to those most unique of oculars shook her head but couldn't help smiling at the sight. "You're supposed to be out the door in five minutes and you haven't even showered or had breakfast yet! Hup hup hup!" She shook her wings in a shooing motion at Rainbow. "Hurry up missy or my wings'll tan your rump!" Ditzy's glare was as threatening a look as she knew how to give—which wasn't saying much.

Dinky giggled at the thought of her kind-hearted mom punishing a pony—she knew she wouldn't even hurt a fly. "Uh oh, momma's mad." She hid her giggles behind her hooves. "You better hurry up if you don't wanna get spanked!"

Rainbow affected a look of mock-horror. "I'm terrified." She deadpanned. "Really, I'm shaking in my horseshoes."

"You should be." Ditzy tried to glare ferociously but the fact that one of her eyes was currently checking out something off to the side somewhat diluted it. The fact that she was biting down on her lip to prevent from smiling didn't help either. "Come on Dashie, get going."

"Yes MOM." Rainbow smirked as she trotted past her old friend, her tail swishing from side to side as she headed out. Then she let out a sharp yelp as she felt a stinging flick on her rump. "Oww! Ditzy!" She turned her head around, looking between the innocently whistling Ditzy and the slight red mark on her backside (Dinky had gone back to feigning sleep).

Ditzy innocently whistled a tune Rainbow Dash recognized as 'Have you Seen the Muffin Mare?' before deigning to notice the surly pegasus rubbing her back end. "What?"

"…." Rainbow shook her head. "Never mind." She rolled her eyes and made her way to the bathroom. A few moments later she headed down stairs and joined Ditzy and Dinky at the breakfast table. She drooled at the picture perfect stack of pancakes, topped with strawberries and liberally doused with syrup and flanked by blueberry muffins and a tall cool glass of Apple Family cider. "Oh my gosh!" She smacked her lips, loudly. "This looks amazing Ditz!"

The gray mare beamed happily, her daughter sitting next to her sipping down some milk. "Aww, thanks Rainbow Dash! Now c'mon, you're due at work soon!"

"Heh no sweat!" The cocky pegasus rubbed her hooves together greedily. Without any further ado she dug into her breakfast like a diamond dog looking for a gem (or a bone). Ditzy and Dinky watched with wide eyes as she demolished her breakfast with practiced ease. In under a minute the pancakes had vanished and the cider glass was empty. Rainbow patted her slightly distended belly and let out a burp. "Ahh….that hit the spot!"

Dinky let out a horrified giggle mixed with a high-pitched 'eeeeeew.' She stuck her tongue out Rainbow Dash. "You're GROSS!" Dinky's voice belied any sense of condemnation as she smiled and added. "…and funny!"

Ditzy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Dinky this is what we call an example of how NOT to act."

"Hey!" Rainbow hiccupped, pounding her chest with one hoof. "You were the pony warning me not to be late!" She stole a quick glance at the cuckoo clock (complete with a pegasus who popped out on the hour). "Whoops, hold on a second!" Rainbow dashed upstairs and proceeded to brush her teeth with lightning speed, before heading back down. "Now, who wants a ride to school today?"

Dinky's eyes lit up as she raised a hoof as high as her tiny form could manage. "Oooh! Oooh me! Me me me! Please momma, can Rainbow Dash fly me to school today? Pleeeeease?" She begged. Ditzy smiled and rubbed her daughter's mane.

"Of course you can muffin." She nonetheless shot Rainbow Dash a look that warned of dire consequences should anything go awry. "Just remember to be careful." She was ostensibly talking to Dinky but her eyes were on Rainbow. The cyan pegasus gulped, unconsciously look back at her rear. She nodded quickly.

Dash nodded. "Got it."

Then Ditzy was all-smiles again. "Okay! Have a good day muffin!" She gave Dinky a colossal mom-hug and kissed her horn. "You too Rainbow Dash!"

"Right back at you Ditzy!" Rainbow tossed a salute. "C'mon squirt let's fly!" With a hop and a squeal, Dinky climbed onto Rainbow Dash's back and then they were off.

The skies were nearly as clear as they were in her dream as Rainbow Dash soared over Ponyville, Dinky clinging tightly to her back. "Oh wow!" The filly exclaimed. "Lookit Rainbow Dash! All the ponies are so little!" She pointed. "They're TINY!"

Rainbow grinned. "Wanna see them a little up closer?"

"YEAH!" Her wings flicked forwards as Rainbow Dash fell into a controlled dive. Dinky buried her face in Dash's mane and shrieked in glee as the ground rose up to meet them. The ponies looked up when they heard the shriek through the air and immediately dove for cover as Rainbow zoomed downwards. With a smirk, Rainbow banked up just as she past the tree-line. "That was so cool!" Dinky chirped as the air rushed past.

"I know, right?" As she approached their destination, Rainbow circled around wide the school smiling as the school foals below looked up and pointed and waved at her. "Okay Dinky, here we are. What are you doing after school?"  
Dinky sat up, shaking her mane out of her eyes. "Um, I was gonna go with Pipsqueak to Sugarcube Corner."

"Who? Oh, you mean the short spotted guy?"

"He is NOT short!" Dinky instinctively defended. "He's just…not very tall." She corrected primly, letting out a sniff.  
Rainbow let out a small laugh. "Awwwww." Her voice squeaked. "You think he's cute don't you?"

"What? Nooooo! Ewwww no way! He has cooties!" Dinky protested furiously.

"Then why are you hanging out with him?"

She felt Dinky fidgeting on her back. "Cuz…he has less cooties than the other colts."

Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "All right, whatever you say." She angled her wings downwards and came in for a landing. "Time for school Dinks."

"Okay!" The little filly chirped as Rainbow's hooves touched down on the ground. "See you later Rainbow Dash!" She ran into the school house, joining the herd of little ponies that nearly knocked Cheerilee off her hooves.

Shaking her head, Dash sped off to start her shift as a weathermare. She arrived in the center of town where her co-workers were waiting for her.

"The fastest pony in Equestria and you still manage to be late." Cloud Kicker chuckled as the lavender pegasus rolled her eyes. "Only you Dash."

Drawing herself up primly Rainbow Dash decided to take the mature road, by blowing a big ripe raspberry at her that lasted a good twenty seconds. She finished it up by adding "…to you CK."

"Classy." Cloud Kicker remarked, brushing away some imaginary spittle from her chest. "Although, I can think of a few good uses for that tongue…"

"Cloud Kicker!" Blossomforth interjected, her face flushed. "Don't be weird on the job!"

The lavender pegasus quirked an eyebrow. "Ooooh, so you want me to save it for after hours? I getcha." She winked. "My place or yours?"

Blossomforth's face lit up in a huge blush as she covered her face with her hooves and squeaked very softly. The final member of their quartet, Raindrops, wondered just how Ditzy had managed to put up with these two for so long.

"Enough already…Cloud Kicker, no breaking Blossomforth unless you want to do her shift as well as yours." Rainbow snorted.

CK stuck out her own tongue at Rainbow Dash in response. "Oh you're no fun anymore."

"You know if we got paid to trade witty banter instead of push clouds around…" Raindrops started. "Wait, no. You still wouldn't be earning anything. So maybe we should just stick to the job at hoof?"

Dash snorted. "Okay ladies looks like we've got ourselves an easy day. Light summer shower over Sweet Apple Acres at ten, low humidity, wind speed is going to hang around fifteen miles per hour and light cirrus cloud cover after lunch." She looked around. "So, usual division of duties? I'll go north and handle Sweet Apple Acres, Blossomforth you take the east, Cloud Kicker the west and Raindrops, you'll handle the south."

"Shouldn't I be taking care of Sweet Apple Acres?" Raindrops' mouth had thinned into a straight line. "Rainfall is my special talent and I'm more familiar with the amount and kind of rain that the farm needs." Unspoken was the comment that she'd been working in Ponyville long before Rainbow Dash had arrived.

Rainbow Dash either missed the subtext or chose to brush it aside. "Nah, I got this. Besides, I got this wicked prank I've been meaning to get Applejack with." She grinned, rubbing her hooves together in gleeful anticipation. "Who says you can't mix business with pleasure?"

"Well—" Cloud Kicker started but was cut off by a quick elbow jab to her gut by Blossomforth who had had enough embarrassment for one morning.

Raindrops rolled her eyes. "Whatever…" She mumbled as she flew off.

Rainbow Dash was going to make a comment about Raindrops needing to pull the stick out but pulled back; less from a sense of maturely wanting to refrain from foalishness and more from not wanting to give Cloud Kicker another opening for her ribald humor. Rainbow had just had breakfast after all.

"Okay everypony you know the drill: last pony to finish their sector pays for lunch!"

Blossomforth flew off to her assigned area but Cloud Kicker hung back, clearly wanting to talk to Rainbow Dash. Grunting, Rainbow tossed her head to indicate that if she wanted to talk, she'd have to keep up because she wasn't going to wait for her. Rainbow Dash sped off, Cloud Kicker followed, doing her best to match her. If it was a real race there would be no contest. But Rainbow wasn't flying at her top speed, just making sure that she was slightly faster than CK practically taunting her by being juuust out of reach…and doing the odd loop or aerial maneuver in the process. Still, Cloud Kicker did well enough not to let Rainbow Dash lose her completely so after a few minutes Rainbow came to a stop: they were above Sweet Apple Acres anyway.

"Okay Kicker, what's on your mind? I mean, besides the usual." Dash quipped as she fluttered down onto a large branch, lying down with her hooves folded behind her head.

Cloud Kicker settled down on a neighboring branch. "It's about this thing between you and Raindrops."

"What thing? There isn't anything between me and Dropsy." She replied, using her own nickname for Raindrops—one she and Cloud Kicker both knew Raindrops HATED, thus unintentionally proving Cloud Kicker's point.

Sure enough, the lavender pegasus lifted a foreleg and pointed. "Yes, you do! There, just like that! You know how much being called Dropsy annoys her." A grunt was Rainbow's only response. Cloud Kicker groaned. "Aw, c'mon boss. You know I'm right. The way she tenses up around you, the way you needle her—it's like you just came off a bad break up."

"Pff, get serious." Rainbow lifted her head up. "She really needs to loosen up." She smirked. "Which is your specialty, I believe?"

Cloud Kicker sighed. "She does have an insanely powerful hind end…but that's not the point." She shook her head. "Yeah, she probably could stand to lighten up a bit, but I think the main problem is how you treat the job."

"What're you talking about? I always do what I have to do—and faster than anypony else could too!"

"Yeah, I know you do…" She sighed as she sat down on the branch. "Problem is that you treat like something you can just get done anytime. Like you don't need to show up on time or can nap through most of your shift and get it all done at the last minute in between napping and training for the Wonderbolts."

Rainbow Dash gave her a look. "Uh, CK? I CAN do it in between naps and training for the Wonderbolts."

That prompted an eye roll from the lavender pegasus. "I KNOW that, that isn't the point. Look, Raindrops' special talent is the rain, right? So while this job might not mean that much to you, it means a lot to her. You know she works hard at it and she really loves her job. So when you don't treat it seriously it feels like you're slighting her and her dedication." She gave a small smile. "Maybe you could just try to, I don't know, give the position a little more weight?"

Rainbow Dash was incredulous. "This from the pony who randomly made it rain on ponies just so you can flirt and tell them how sexy they look with their manes wet?"

"One time!" Cloud Kicker protested. "One…Time…I did that…okay, maybe twice. Or…well, whatever that's not the point either!"

"You keep saying that." Rainbow drawled laconically. "Are you sure you know what the point is?"

That prompted a facehoof and a resigned sigh. "Just…think about it, okay? Catch you later Dash." CK waved and flew off to her assigned area, leaving Rainbow Dash alone.

She didn't see what the big deal was. So she liked to make her job more fun, was that a crime now? How was it her problem if Raindrops was a stick in the mud? Further ruminations on this line of thought were put off when Rainbow spied Applejack bucking her way through the trees. She grinned and quietly flew up to grab one of the rain-laden clouds, bringing it down below the tree line and hid it amongst the branches and leaves. This was gonna be good…

Just as the farmpony made her way over to tree where Rainbow Dash and her cloud were hiding, a familiar gray-coated pegasus flew up to her. "Maaaaaail!" Ditzy sang out, resplendent in her blue uniform jacket and cap. "Mail for you Applejack!"

"Well, howdy there Ditzy Doo!" Applejack smiled warmly. "What've ya got for th' Apple Family today?"

Ditzy dug around in her mailbag. "Let's see! Ooh you've got your monthly _Apple Digest_ magazine…a notification from AppleCon…party invitation from Pinkie Pie…a brochure from the Equestrian Agriculture Conference and Exhibition, another invitation from Pinkie…" In her tree, Rainbow Dash facehooved. There was loving apples and then there was being INSANE. Applejack crossed that line about three letters ago. "…oh here's a letter from Appleloosa!"

Applejack beamed as she saw the return address on the letter's front. "Why that must be mah cousin Braeburn! Heh, wonder what he's up to…" Flipping it over, she ripped the top open with her teeth and took out the letter. "Lesse now…what?" She asked in confusion, reading aloud:

_Rainbow Dash-_

_Be joyful and rejoice for I—The GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE—shall grace you with my presence, though I am sure you have done little to deserve it. Still, I am Great and Generous as well as Great and Powerful, so I will be visiting your new home in 'Ponyville' (original name, by the way) and look forward to your wide-eyed awe and adoration. Perhaps while I am around I will grant this two-bit town with a show of my amazing magical prowess! I will be in the need of a lovely assistant…could you recommend somepony? _

…_Fine, you win, I could NOT start a letter without introducing myself. I owe you ten bits (blast you). I'll be arriving tomorrow with my wagon. Looking forward to seeing you and catching up.  
Signed,  
**-TRIXIE, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL**_

"…tarnation?" Applejack scratched her head.

All of a sudden a wild whoop and a flash of blue exploded out of the tree in front of them. "YYEEEES! All right!" Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in the air as she twirled about doing a mid-air dance. "Trixie's coming to town! Ha ha! This is gonna be a blast!"

"Rainbow Dash what in tarnation is yer friend's letter doing in mah cousin's envelope?" Applejack demanded. Then she narrowed her eyes. "And what were you doin' in one of mah apple trees?"

"Nothing." Rainbow quickly answered. Ditzy examined the discarded envelope.

"Whoopsee! I see what happened." Picking it up with her hoof, she wedged her wing along the side, gently tearing a second envelope off the back of the first. "Looks like your cousin's letter got stuck to Rainbow Dash's letter." The mailmare explained, holding up the opened one, which was post-marked to Rainbow Dash while the other one, from Braeburn, still sat unopened on the ground.

Applejack nudged her hat back. "Huh, well ah'll be. Sorry for reading your mail Rainbow."

Rainbow waved a hoof. "Pff, naah it's fine."

"Who's Trixie?" Ditzy asked as she idly poked through her mailbags for anything for Rainbow Dash.

"Pal of mine from Canterlot. She's got this whole magic show thing going on, pretty neat." She buffed a hoof on her chest. "Doesn't have a patch on my flying though. We have a bet going over which one of us makes it big first. I think saving the world puts me ahead."

Applejack snorted. "Yer impossible." She looked down. "Oh look, there's more." She peered at the letter. "'PS I finally got around to having those photos from that magic show back in Canterlot printed. You know the one.'" As she read, Rainbow Dash's face paled. "'Turn over.'"

"No, wait!" Rainbow Dash snatched the letter (and incriminating photograph) away before Applejack or Ditzy could see it. "Hehehe, nothing to see there!"

"Obviously." AJ drawled, chuckling as Ditzy giggled softly behind her hooves. "Dun worry, ah ain't gonna pry."

Coughing, trying to regain her cool Rainbow Dash changed subjects. "Hey Ditz, Dinky said she was going to hang out with Pipsqueak after school at Sugarcube Corner."

Ditzy let out a mother's awww which words cannot accurately hope to relay. "That's so cute." She smiled. Meanwhile Applejack took the time to open and scan her cousin's letter. Seeing her distracted, Rainbow Dash saw this as a good time to make her escape.

"Yeah…so see you later Ditzy! Bye AJ!" She propelled herself into the air and out of sight before they could protest.

Applejack watched her go, shaking her head. "That filly. You've got a big heart to let her stay with you and yer daughter."

Ditzy blushed, scuffing the ground with her hoof. "It's nothing really. Dinky loves her to bits. Besides, Rainbow can be really sweet. Um, don't tell her I told you that." She added weakly.

Chuckling, Applejack replied, "Told me what?" She smiled. "Anyway, it's nice to know that one of her old friends is comin' into town—even if she does seem a mite full of hot air. Still, anything that keeps Dash busy has got to be a good thing right? How much trouble could she cause with a friend in town?"

The question, meant to be rhetorical, was answered in the concrete when AJ bucked the tree Rainbow Dash had been occupying, setting off the rain-filled cloud and dousing the orange-coated earth pony with chilly rain.

"Um, are you okay Applejack?" Ditzy asked tentatively.

"J-just…d-dandy." AJ said through chattering teeth, mentally reminding herself to have a word with a certain blue pegasus the next time they met.

Said pegasus had paused in the branches of another apple tree as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with a hoof, exhaling in relief. "That was close…" Looking up, she saw that the sky over the rest of Ponyville was largely cleared. Clearly the others had been working hard. Rainbow sighed, knowing that Raindrops or Cloud Kicker would be grumbling to her later about her 'slacking.' Determined not to pay for lunch and even more determined not to lose, Rainbow threw herself into her work. She moved the clouds into their proper position and bucked the rainwater out of them and onto the trees and fields of Sweet Apple Acres.

When she finished she saw with no small pride that despite her late start, she still finished before her three co-workers. An awesome breakfast, flying the squirt to school, pranking AJ, learning an old friend was coming to town, and about to get a free lunch? All in all, not a bad way to start the day.

Lunchtime found the four weather pegasi: Rainbow Dash, Cloud Kicker, Blossomforth and Raindrops sitting around a table at the local café. This had been the routine since before Rainbow Dash came to Ponyville and Ditzy Doo sat where Dash was now. However, the innovation that the last pony to complete their assignment paid for lunch for the others was only a month old and coincided with a certain rainbow-maned pegasus becoming weather manager.

To be fair no one pony ended up becoming bankrupt on account of it. The loser usually ended up shifting between Rainbow's three co-workers on a more-or-less regular basis and none could grumble because Rainbow Dash usually took the lion's share of the day's assignments. Some would say that she did so in order to be somewhat sporting and a recognition that she could do more work on account of her incredible speed. Others would say that she only did it so she'd have more to brag about when she invariably finished first. The truth was probably somewhere in the middle there.

In fact, Rainbow Dash HAD lost one time (to her eternal shame) when she just couldn't rouse herself from her mid-morning nap and slept all the way through to lunch. She swore it would never happen again. She wasn't referring to not taking naps during work hours that is, but napping so long that the others finished up before her.

The others had their own strengths and weaknesses that offset one another which meant that any one of them could end up paying for lunch on any given day. Raindrops was, to put it bluntly, a very slow, even clumsy flier. However this was compensated by her sheer endurance and love of her job; to say nothing of her talent with precipitation as indicated by her Cutie Mark. Blossomforth wasn't very fast or strong, but was incredibly nimble and flexible (something that Cloud Kicker was sure to comment on, loudly and often without proper context). Cloud Kicker was, after Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier but her propensity for distraction—especially when a distraction took the form of a particularly hot looking piece of flank (her words)—meant that even her speed didn't guarantee that she wouldn't be paying for lunch. If you were to ask her though, all Cloud Kicker would say was "Worth it!"

Today the latter was paying as she regaled her friends and coworkers about the very attractive stallion she met during her shift. "…I'm inviting him back to my place tomorrow night."

Blossomforth nibbled on a daisy sandwich, wrinkling her muzzle in equal measures of bemusement and horror. "Cloud Kicker you're incorrigible."

Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof against the table as she thought aloud. "You know Kicker, your family's pretty big. I mean, back in Canterlot there had to be a dozen of you guys in the Guard alone." Cloud Kicker nodded in agreement. "So I mean, you can't possibly keep track of everypony in Equestria who's a Kicker…so the next time you're hitting on somepony, how do you know it isn't your cousin or something?"

"Ewww!" Blossomforth squeaked. "Ugh, how can you even think of something like that?" She looked to Cloud Kicker for support but found her friend looking oddly thoughtful.

She just shrugged as Blossomforth took a drink of water. "Eh, for all I know it HAS happened already. I feel like the pursuit of a good bang is worth a little risk." She rubbed her muzzle. "Maybe I SHOULD start asking them about their families before we bang though. Wouldn't want a repeat of that weekend with Cousin Medley."

Blossomforth sputtered, expelling a spray of water onto Raindrops and Rainbow Dash, who held up their hooves in a doomed effort to keep themselves dry. "PPFFFFF! C-CLOUD KICKER!" Blossomforth coughed, turning red—a combination of embarrassment and her near-choking.

Cloud Kicker pumped a hoof in triumph. "Aha! Spit take away! Nailed it!"

"Charming…" Raindrops drawled, dabbing her face with a napkin. "Who needs weatherponies to make it rain when we have you two?"

Rainbow Dash snickered. "That's not a half bad idea! We could probably cut back on our rain cloud orders just by having Blossomforth drinking lots of water up on a cloud somewhere and letting Cloud Kicker….be Kicker."

Said pegasus bowed as if acknowledging praise while Blossomforth moaned, burying her red face in her hooves. "Hate you all….SO much…"

"Aww we know you love us." Cloud Kicker draped a hoof across Blossomforth's shoulder, pulling her in for a sideways hug. She squeaked and feebly tried to pull away from the crazy lavender pegasus. She looked appealingly to Rainbow Dash, but her boss just held up her hooves helplessly and shook her head as if to say 'better you than me.' Raindrops munched on some hayfries.

"A-anypony else have anything interesting happen to them today?" Blossomforth blurted out as she desperately tried to untangle herself from Cloud Kicker's grip. "Anything NOT—perverted?"

Rainbow Dash swallowed a mouthful of her sandwich, eager to jump in first. "Oh yeah!" She said, a delicate spray of crumbs peppering the table in front of her. "So, there I was in the apple orchard, right? And while I was waiting for Applejack to walk into this EPIC prank—" she looked up to see Raindrops sigh and roll her eyes as Cloud Kicker shot Rainbow a look with a quirked eyebrow. "—well, anyway, I ran into Ditzy Doo."

"How's she doing?" Cloud Kicker let Blossomforth go as she turned to Rainbow for an answer. Raindrops' ears perked up as she waited for the response.

"She's doing great." Dash beamed. "She's getting a lot more rest, she looks happier—of course that could just be because I moved in." She smirked, reveling in the eyerolls of her coworkers. "Anyway, she managed to get some work done on her house that was overdue and is loving that she gets to spend more time with Dinky. I tell you, she had that promotion coming for a long time." Nopony disagreed. Eccentricities and clumsiness aside, Ditzy was a fairly capable weather manager and mailmare. The only reason she didn't advance sooner was because she ran herself ragged at her other job—which the post office could say the same regarding the weather service.

Blossomforth smiled. "Awww. What's it like living there?"

Rainbow Dash pretended to think for a moment before coming up with a response. "Muffin-y." That got a snort out of everypony present. "Seriously though, it's pretty awesome. Ditzy's an amazing cook, Dinky's a lot of fun—really smart for a filly her age too. It's a nice place and I like it." She paused. "I kinda wish Ditzy had a cloud place, but…" she shrugged. "It's cool."

"Hope you aren't eating her out of house and home." Raindrops commented, looking at the crumbs on her plate that used to be a daisy sandwich, two side orders of hayfries, a soda, and a small salad. If Rainbow Dash didn't have such a fast metabolism—pegasi tended to burn a lot of calories flying—she'd be looking like a bowling ball with wings by this point.  
Rainbow shot her a look. "Hey, I earn my keep! I take Dinky to school in the morning when Ditzy has to deliver the mail, I foalsit for her, I clean….sometimes…and I help pay for groceries and stuff."

"I'm sure that's not what Raindrops meant." Blossomforth chimed in. "She just…well, have you ever tried making something for her?"

"Does paying for take out count?" Rainbow asked. "I mean…I'm an awesome cook and all." She added quickly, convincing nopony. "Buuuut Ditzy's just more familiar with her kitchen and stuff." The cyan pegasus took another hayfry and started chewing on it, having an excuse on hoof to not answer if anypony else had a comment.

The others traded a look and mutually decided not to bother. They knew Rainbow Dash couldn't cook and that it would be more trouble than it was worth trying to get her to admit to it, so what was the point? They just shrugged and moved on.  
Cloud Kicker couldn't help being herself when she asked, "So…have you and Ditzy ever…" the rest of her question was asked by a wiggle of her eyebrows. Rainbow Dash started to choke on her hayfry, turning purple. Raindrops had to pound her back until she coughed up the soggy piece of hayfry onto the table, gasping for air.

"W-what?!" Dash finally exhaled after greedily chugging down a glass of water that was offered from Blossomforth. "Ditzy Doo is like my SISTER! Don't be disgusting!"

That outburst prompted only a slight shrug from Cloud Kicker. "Come on, it's not like she's related to you. She's a pretty cute mare and a sweet gal. I wouldn't mind having a taste of her muf—"

"Lalalalalalala!" Rainbow Dash covered her ears and began chanting loudly in a particularly off-key voice. "I can't heaaaaaar you!" After a quick look around confirmed that Cloud Kicker's mouth wasn't open—indeed Blossomforth had swiftly inserted her hoof into it—she lowered her hooves and cleared her throat. "Where were we? Oh yeah I was telling you all about this awesome news I got! After I ran into Ditzy, she gave me my mail…well, she actually gave Applejack my mail but that's not important. What matters is that an old friend of mine is going to be coming to town tomorrow! This is going to be so great!" Her eyes gleamed. "I'm going to have to stock up on some supplies though…she always tries to outdo me with these unicorn magic-y special effects but this time I'll be ready! I'll gather up some a few thunder clouds…"

"Wait, unicorn?" Cloud Kicker made a face. "Please tell me it's not—"

"Those are meant to be used for work." Raindrops interrupted, frowning at Rainbow Dash.

She just waved her off. "Eh, it's only a few. We've got extras."

"What if there's an emergency or the next order from Cloudsdale gets backed up?" Raindrops persisted.

Rainbow Dash was getting irritated. "And what if clouds were made of cotton candy, what's your point?"

The jasmine pegasus felt her jaw clench. "You could try taking your job a bit more seriously. How you act reflects on the rest of us you know." She gestured at the rest of the table, encompassing the entire group.

"Don't go dragging Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth into this." Dash snapped. "You're the one who has the problem Raindrops, not them, not me: YOU."

"Can you blame me?" Raindrops snorted angrily. "It's one thing for you to just drop in and land yourself a job that some of us *worked* hard to earn, I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is that you don't take the job seriously and you expect us to listen to you!"

Blossomforth (bless her) tried to intervene. "Come on you guys, can we not do this?" But neither of the two more hard-headed mares was interested in listening.

Rainbow slammed her hooves onto the table top and leaned forward, starting Raindrops eyeball to eyeball. "You better watch what you're talking about! Just because I don't have a stick up my rump like you doesn't mean you're a better weathermare."

"It does when you wind up napping on a cloud somewhere instead of doing your job!"

"Hey, I always pull my weight! It's not my fault I can do my job faster and better than a flying boulder like you!"

Surprise surprise, calling attention to Raindrop's slower than average flying speed was not the way to win her over. "If being fast is so important," Raindrops breathed between her clenched teeth. "How about I give you a boost by bucking your sorry rump all the way to—"

"Why don't you two just bang already?!" Cloud Kicker interjected, successfully managing to not only derail the argument, but also sending their train of thought careening off its tracks and come crashing down off a very tall mountain and exploding upon impact with the ground. CK was good at what she did.

Raindrops felt her jaw idly hanging open at the thought, her eyes threatening to imitate Ditzy Doo's as she tried to process what Cloud Kicker had said and the thought process that was behind it. "A buwah?"

Rainbow Dash, for her part looked at Cloud Kicker as if she'd forgotten that the other pegasus was there (which she likely had) and dreaded the prospective needling she was going to give her later if she didn't nip this in the bud. "Kicker, for a pony born with wings, your mind spends a lot of time in the gutter." She pronounced firmly. Surprisingly, Raindrops nodded in agreement.

Blossomforth snickered, then coughed to make it seem like she hadn't. "So, um how about that weather? It isn't going to make itself—if it did we'd be out of a job!" She giggled at the absurdity glad that the tension was…if not broken, then at least reduced.

Snorting and shooting Raindrops a dirty look, Rainbow Dash grumbled. "Yeah, whatever." She pushed herself away from the table. "Clouds need to be cleared by the end of your shifts, you know the drill. See ya." She flapped her wings once and sped off.

Raindrops—what a nag! If she didn't know better she'd wonder if she had gone in Cloud Kicker's place to Westhoof to have all the fun sucked out of her. Huh. Come to think of it, Cloud Kicker HAD gone and was still a lot of fun. Whatever.

"Rainbow Dash! Hey Rainbow Dash!" She looked down to see Pinkie Pie waving at her from the ground. Rainbow slowed, lowering herself to the ground. "Whatcha doing?"

The pegasus tossed her head. "Eh, just clearing up some clouds. What's up?"

"I just came from seeing Applejack cuz the Cakes needed some apples—the fruits not the ponies since I don't think ponies taste that good—and Applejack was all shivery and sneezy which is funny cuz it's still summer and I was wondering if had somehow became winter and then I thought of a great idea for having a snowball fight in the middle of—"

"Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow Dash shouted. The pink pony blinked.

"Oh, right, sorry! Applejack was all cold and wet and then she said that you pulled some sort of practical joke on her." She frowned, her lower lip jutting out in a pout as she lowered her ears and looked up with wide puppy-dog eyes. "I love playing pranks Rainbow Dash…why didn't you ask me to join you?"

She rubbed her head to ward off an oncoming headache. "It was a spur of the moment thing Pinkie."

"So…" Pinkie gave a little bounce. "Do you wanna go pranking with me now?"

"Well, I have to clear away the clouds from the farm…" Rainbow started when she was hit by another Pinkie pout. She sighed. "Hnng…fine."

Pinkie's face immediately lit up into a wide smile. "Great! Oooh! I got just the thing!" She tugged on Rainbow Dash's leg. "Follow me!" Rolling her eyes gently, Rainbow let herself be dragged along as the excitable pink pony eagerly explained her proposed prank. Rainbow felt herself smile.

A few minutes later Rainbow Dash was knocking on the door of the library. The door opened to reveal Twilight Sparkle. "Oh, hello Rainbow Dash."

"Hey Twi." The rainbow pony tossed her mane out of her eyes. "You busy?"

"Uh, no. Come on in." She stepped aside to let Rainbow in. "Is there something you want?"  
Rainbow nodded as she walked in. "Yeah. I was looking to see if you had any books on, uh, the history of the weather service?"

The purple unicorn beamed, clapping her hooves together joyfully. "Of course! You want to find out more about your work? I've been meaning to do some reading up on it myself…" She trotted over to the shelves. "I'm so happy to see that you're doing some independent research! Just be sure not to forget about your assignment—we're going over that study of pre-Classical era conjurers together and I'll be asking you about what you've learned."

Rainbow Dash shuddered. She had learned more than she ever wanted to about Star Swirl the Bearded's life and dietary habits. If Twilight tried to also make him the focus of their biographical studies again Rainbow was going to hurl.

Still, the point was to keep Twilight distracted for a few minutes. She waved through the window at the eager face of Pinkie. The pink pony grinned and came in the open door, sneaking by the studious unicorn without a peep as Twilight examined the bookshelf. "So, Rainbow Dash, how are you liking it here in Ponyville?"

"It's cool…you?"

Twilight nodded. "Everypony here is so friendly! And I get to live in a…library!" She gave a fillyish squeal and a little hop of joy. At Rainbow's expression of bemusement, Twilight coughed, coloring slightly. "A heh heh, well…It has been a bit of a transition. Shining Armor still writes a lot, that really helps." She paused. "You?"

She nodded. "Yeah…"

"You…okay?" Twilight asked gently. "You and Shining Armor I mean."

Rainbow sighed and repeated herself. "Yeah…it's cool. I mean, he's—" She paused, searching for the right words. "He's your brother and…I kinda like the idea that he'd be mine too." She blushed.

"Awww…" Twilight smiled. "That's so sweet!"

A flush of red scorched Rainbow Dash's cheeks. "Shhhh! Keep it down!" She hissed, looking from side to side.

Twilight gave her a look. "Come on, it's not like there's anypony else here!" She gave her friend a hug. "You're always welcome here, if you ever want a change of scene—not that there's anything wrong with living with Ditzy and Dinky I mean." She added hurriedly. "But if you ever wanted to I—"

"I got the idea." Rainbow flexed her wings idly. "I also wanted to say thanks for moving to Ponyville with me. It made it easier to go through all this stuff with somepony going through it with me." She paused. "You tell anypony I said that, I'll deny it."

"Your secret's safe with me." A book floated over, surrounded in a purple haze of magic. "Here's your book on the weather service. Let me know how you find it!"

Out of the corner of her eye Rainbow Dash spied Pinkie discretely making her way down the stairs, slinking along the walls and—okay, seriously how could she flatten herself against the wall THAT much?

Twilight looked at Rainbow curiously. "Are you alright? You're acting kind of weird."

"Huh? Sorry." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It's nothing. Thanks again." She paused. "By the way, Ditzy was thinking of asking you about giving Dinky magic lessons. She's starting to get to the age where unicorns are taught right?"

Stars lit up in Twilight's eyes at the prospect of doing even more teaching and educating. She rubbed her hooves together and did a little happy dance. "I still have all my magic for beginner books with me! This is so exciting!" She let out a little gasp as she paced to and fro, missing Pinkie's subtle exit from the library. "I need to go make up a list of appropriate books and set up a schedule! I'll have to catch you later Rainbow Dash!" There was a flash of light and Twilight was gone, teleported up the stairs Pinkie had just come down.

As Rainbow Dash left the library she heard a massive thundering blast of flatulence. **Ppppppppppthhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrr rrrrrrrpppppppp-p-p! Ppphhhhrrrppp!** The leaves of the tree shook as the echo reverberated across town, so loud that some thought it might have been heard in distant Canterlot. Rainbow Dash quickly made her exit as she heard the angry yell of a mortified lavender unicorn as she discovered the whoopee cushion placed on her seat.  
**  
"PIINKIIIIE PIE! RAINBOW DAAAAASH!"  
**  
& & &

After pranking Twilight, Rainbow Dash took care of the clouds over Sweet Apple Acres. The rest of her day was pretty average, napping, practicing, dinner with Ditzy, bed. The next day found Rainbow Dash setting things up for Trixie's impending arrival.

She had strung together an arc of clouds over town square, right above the main road leading through town. It was a Saturday which meant that town was full of young ponies enjoying their school-free morning. That also meant that Rainbow Dash was watching Dinky since Ditzy still had her mail rounds to do.

"You okay squirt?" Rainbow called down as she nudged another dark cloud into place.

Dinky nodded. "Yes Rainbow Dash!" She chirped in between licks of an ice cream cone Rainbow had gotten her.

"Heh, enjoying yourself?" The older pony grinned. The little filly nodded, nomming her frozen treat. "Glad to hear it." Having checked on Dinky, Rainbow Dash finished up her cloud display and fluttered down to the ground. "There, all done!" She smirked. "This is going to be so great…"

"Is Trixie a good friend of yours, like momma?" Dinky asked, a dab of ice cream on the tip of her nose.

Rainbow smiled but didn't mention it to her. "Yeah, but not quite like me and Ditzy. Your mom and I go waaay back. I didn't know Trixie until I moved to Canterlot."

"That's when you met the Princess she became your teacher, like Miss Cheerilee, right?" Dinky giggled as Rainbow Dash's hoof ruffled her mane.

"Why are you asking me when you know already? I must've told you that story a hundred times!"

The little filly unleashed her most devastating puppy dog pout. "Pleeeeeease Rainbow Dash? I want to hear about the Princess again!"

"Why's that?" Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

Dinky scuffed her hoof along the ground. "I like to pretend that I'm a muffin princess sometimes!" Rainbow grimaced, fairly certain her heart had just exploded from a fatal overdose of cute.

She groaned. "Fiiiine. I'll tell you again tonight when you go to bed. Deal?"

"Okay!" Dinky grinned, hugging Rainbow's leg. "You're the best, Rainbow Dash!"

"Yeah, I am. But you're pretty cool too, squirt." She patted her head. "So…want to hear about my friend Trixie?"

"Yeah!" The filly nodded eagerly. The two ponies sat down, getting comfortable as Rainbow Dash started telling her story.

She cleared her throat. "Okay, so you know that I was in Canterlot as Princess Celestia's student. It was pretty great. Buuuut sometimes I would…" she looked for the right words. "Excuse myself to engage in extracurricular activities."

"Does that mean you played hookey?" Dinky asked innocently, with piercing insight.

Rainbow winced. "…yeah. Hey, you can't learn everything in a school! But, um, don't tell your mom I told you that. And, uh, don't do that yourself. A heh. Aaaanyway!" She hurried along. "So me and Cloud Kicker—you know who Cloud Kicker is right?"

The unicorn filly nodded. "She worked with momma on the weather team and used to watch me sometimes when momma was busy, sometimes she even brought her little sister Alula along! She's really fun! And Miss Cloud Kicker is really funny!"

"She sure is." Dash agreed. "I met her in the same summer flight camp where I met Fluttershy and your mom. Cloud Kicker was in Canterlot at Westhoof training to be a member of the Royal Guard."

"Miss Kicker's a Royal Guard?" Dinky's eyes went wide. "Whoa…"

Rainbow Dash chuckled dryly. "Not really…it's complicated. But that's not the point. So when I wasn't taking lessons from the Princess and Cloud Kicker wasn't training for the guards, we used to hang out, explore the city—" get into a lot of trouble, but Rainbow chose not to mention that part. "—and have a lot of fun." Which meant the same thing but she didn't see fit to elaborate on that either. "One time we saw there was this fair in town so we decided to check it out. There were a lot of booths and rides and shows with lots of ponies—and non-ponies—coming around to buy and sell stuff."

"That sounds really neat!" Dinky squealed, wriggling excitedly.

"Sure was! We ate cotton candy and candied apples and flew around playing games and stuff. Naturally, I won the most." She grinned cockily.

Dinky laughed. "And that's where you met Miss Trixie?"

"You better believe it!" Rainbow leaned in…and couldn't resist stealing a bite of Dinky's ice cream cone. "Yum!"

"HEEY! This is MY ice cream! Get your own!" Dinky protested, turning and covering her ice cream protectively with her body.

Rainbow pouted. "Aww c'mon Dinks! I paid for it! Don't I get an itty-bitty taste?" She pleaded, pressing her hooves together.

"Weeeeell…" Dinky thought it over. "I guess so. Um. Can you do me a favor though?" She asked hopefully. "I kinda promised Pipsqueak that you'd help us build a pirate ship-fort…"

"Heh, sure." Rainbow Dash agreed breezily. "No problem. It'll be a piece of cake."

Suddenly a voice called from behind the two of them. "Hey, Rainbow Dash?" They turned around to see Raindrops walking up to them.

"Raindrops." Dash nodded evenly.

"Miss Raindrops!" Dinky waved eagerly. Hi! Want some ice cream?"

The jasmine pegasus smiled. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks Dinks." She fished some bits out a pouch she had tucked under her wing. "Here, why don't you get some goodies from Sugarcube Corner while me and Rainbow Dash talk?"

Dinky's eyes widened as she eagerly scooped up the bits and scampered off to indulge her sweet tooth at the bakery. Rainbow meanwhile looked at Raindrops curiously. "So what is it that we need to talk about?"

Raindrops took a deep breath. "I—spoke to Cloud Kicker a bit yesterday after lunch."

"Yeah. So?" Rainbow asked challengingly, crossing her hooves over her chest.

Not rising to the bait, Raindrops sighed and continued. "We talked a bit and…well, for starters if I took issue with how things were working with you as chief weather pony I should've spoken to you in private and not criticized you in front of Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth."

Rainbow was incredulous. "You really think I care about that?"

"_I_ do." Raindrops stressed. "It wasn't professional and it wasn't the right way to go about talking to you. So, sorry for that."

"Fine, you're forgiven. Is that it?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently, keeping an eye open for the arrival of Trixie.

Raindrops looked irritated. "You could still try to take your job a bit more seriously, try to show everypony that you might actually deserve it?"

THAT got Rainbow Dash's attention. She whirled on Raindrops, seething mad. "So what, you think I don't deserve the top spot?"

Raindrops either missed or ignored the dangerous tone in Dash's voice. "Well gee, you tell me." Raindrops retorted sarcastically. "You nap all day, you're never on time and you just got the job ahead of other ponies more qualified than you. What do you think?"

"And by qualified ponies you mean you?" Rainbow snorted. "Who are you trying to kid? There's a reason why I was offered the top slot and you weren't. Before you try analyzing me, you might want to think about just why it is that you've never been offered the job before—including back when Ditzy was still in charge and everypony thought she was a klutz."

The two angry mares locked glares. It might have escalated if not for the timely arrival of Dinky Doo. "Ah gawf uffins!" She mumbled around a bag full of bakery-fresh goodness. Not wanting to have it out in front of her, they backed down. Dinky spat the bag out of her mouth. "Who wants blueberry muffins?" She asked so cheerfully that neither pony had the heart to continue arguing.

"Thanks Dinky." Raindrops said with a smile that looked more like a grimace. "You take care. Bye Rainbow Dash." Rainbow grunted non-comittedly. The jasmine pony took a muffin and flew away.

Dinky looked up at Rainbow Dash. "Is something wrong?" She asked worriedly, her ears lowering.

Rainbow winced. Darn that filly was a sharp one! "…it's nothing Dinks." She plastered a smile on her face. "Just some boring grown up stuff."

"Oh." Dinky thought. "Um, is it about mortgages and bills and stuff?"

"Naaah." Rainbow chuckled. "It's…oh look!" She pointed with a hoof. The little filly's eyes followed it to a yellow wagon with a red roof, decorated with stars and moons, that was slowly coming into town square…only nopony was pulling it. It looked like it was moving all on its own. Then it stopped and its sides seemed to open up into a full blown stage, with curtains and everything!

"Whoa." Dinky breathed. "It must be magic!"

Chuckling, Rainbow Dash nudged her forward. "Sure is. Go on, grab a spot in the front before they're all taken!" Dinky eagerly nodded and rushed forward where a gaggle of other foals were already getting seated up in front.

"Rainbow!" The pegasus turned to see her friends—Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy—walking over from the other side of the square. She waved them over to join her but soon a throng of ponies had come between them, all intent on seeing who this mystery mare in the wagon was. She shrugged. They could always talk after the show. And it looked like the show was about to begin…

"Citizens of Ponyville!" A voice boomed from somewhere out of sight. "Prepare to watch in awe and be amazed by the magical wonders of the Great and Powerful—TRIXIE!" A puff of smoke and a flash of light—mirrors, Rainbow Dash knew—heralded the appearance of a light blue unicorn mare with a snow-white mane and resplendent in a purple cape and pointed hat. She smiled widely, holding a pose on her hindlegs as fireworks and rockets were set off behind her and sparklers sparkled on either side.

The foals just ate it up but a surprising amount of grown ponies were also whispering in amazement. Trixie smiled. "Prepare yourselves for the grandest display of magic ever seen by equine eyes!" She raised her hooves higher in the air and the fireworks went off again. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly. She'd been telling Trixie forever…do some magic first, THEN you can start bragging. Doing it the other way around just made her seem obnoxious. Not that Trixie wasn't obnoxious mind you, but being a stage performer it was somewhat expected, even encouraged. To a point, that is.

She twirled her hooves in the air and a bouquet of flowers appeared. Amid the ooohs and awws she tossed the bouquet into the audience. "Now, the Great and Powerful Trixie requests somepony from the audience comes up. Hmmm…." She looked around as if not noticing the forest of raised hooves in front of her, especially among the eager little ponies occupying the front row. "Where can she find one….hmm…how about…YOU!" She pointed at a small, somewhat chubby colt with a gray coat and a darker gray mane.

"M-me?" The colt gasped as his peers nudged him up to the stage. Rainbow Dash let her mind drift as Trixie pulled out her usual faire—card tricks, slight of hoof, and some minor magic. The last time she had seen Trixie had been what? Two maybe three years ago? She had left Canterlot intent on traveling Equestria to make a name for herself. It had been hard to keep in touch since then…but it looked like Trixie had done okay.

A burst of applause brought Rainbow's attention back to the stage as the delighted and amazed little pony scampered off. Trixie strode forth, her head high and her cape and mane blowing in the wind. "Is there any doubt that Trixie is the Greatest and most Powerful pony in all of Equestria?" Trixie gestured grandly.

"I doubt it!" Everypony looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering overhead, her hooves folded and the wind dramatically blowing through her hair. A slight smile tugged at her mouth as Trixie looked up at her. Anypony watching would swear that Trixie had never seen her before, she betrayed nothing. Rainbow pointed a hoof at Trixie. "Nopony's more incredible and awesome than me!"

Trixie smirked. "Is that so? Very well—we will let the audience decide." She looked to the crowd briefly. "Top this! Her fire works redoubled in size and number, streaking upwards and exploding brilliantly. Flashes of color lit up the sky spelling out in large multicolored letters that could be seen all the way across town 'THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE IS THE BEST!'

Rainbow Dash yawned demonstratively, idly tilting her head to one side, moving out of the way of an errant firework as it zoomed past. "Not bad…not bad." She admitted, damning with faint praise. With a tooth-filled smile, she flew down to where she had strung up her archway of thunder clouds. She flew through it so fast that the clouds activated, rumbling with thunder and shooting lightning at the ground. Nimbly, Rainbow weaved her way around the lightning strikes as she flew in and out of the archway. Then she doubled back and proceeded to dance in midair, shaking her hips and tossing her head as she narrowly avoided being struck by the lightning. The bolts shot to the ground and seemed to rebound back up to the cloud, forming pillars of crackling light that sizzled and sparked on either side of Rainbow, providing for an amazing backdrop.

Narrowing her eyes, Trixie levitated her hat off her head. Her horn flashed as the clouds moved and bunched together. The lightning became more concentrated, with more strikes coming faster and faster, the space between the bolts narrowing. Rainbow Dash grunted and flew out of the thunder arch, heading up to the sky. She barreled through clouds as she made her way up to Trixie's firework display, dragging droplets of mist and dew up with her. When she came to a stop the light refracted off the water droplets and formed three rainbow-colored bands that seemed to just grow out of her wings. Then, with some subtle wingwork and maneuvering, she managed to rewrite Trixie's name to now read as 'Dixie.'

But Trixie wasn't finished either. A trio of over-sized rockets shot overhead, coming right for Rainbow Dash! She started to fly and they gave chase, magically directed by Trixie. They swirled and circled, hemming Rainbow in, but not for long. The agile Pegasus broke free, leading them on a merry chase. A rainbow contrail followed in her wake as she flew, one that eventually ended up spelling out "RAINBOW DASH IS #1!" Then she stopped and let the rockets converge on her. An instant before they would've impacted with her, Rainbow Dash stopped flying and let herself fall. The rockets collided and exploded in a bright burst of color and fury as Rainbow let gravity tug her down to the ground. She fell faster and faster. Ponies gasped, some covered their eyes. Just as it seemed impossible for her to pull up, that's what she did. She pulled out of her steep dive and blazed a rainbow trail just above the heads of the amazed crowd.

The rest of the show was of the same vein, with the two ponies simultaneously competing with each other and working off one another to perform more and more incredible stunts and acts of flying and magical daring. The crowd just ate it up.

After about ten minutes of that, with Trixie beginning to slightly tire, she turned to the audience. "So, who thinks that the Great and Powerful Trixie is the most talented pony who ever lived?" A roar of cheers and stomping hooves greeted her. "And Rainbow Dash?" Trixie pulled a face as the audience also, loudly, indicated its appreciation for Rainbow Dash's exploits. She coughed. "Yes, well, I suppose she wasn't the worst act Trixie has ever seen." Then hurried along. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will be performing again before she leaves. Feel free to show your appreciation!" She bowed as the encore of cheers and applause before vanishing with another puff of smoke.

Dinky ran up to Rainbow Dash. "Ohmygosh that was AMAZING!" The little filly enthused.

"I know, right?" Rainbow gave her a noogie as she looked around. "I'm gonna go say hi to Trixie…think you can stick close to Carrot Top for a bit?" She waved at the carrot farmer as she set up her stand. She was next door neighbors to Ditzy and close friend. The orange-haired earth pony waved back at Rainbow Dash and Dinky.

Dinky nodded. "Okay! See you later Rainbow Dash!" She galloped off to help Carrot Top sell her wares while Rainbow turned back to the crowd, making her way to the stage. When the throngs had thinned, ponies still eagerly discussing the show in small groups, Rainbow Dash circled around and flew through the half-open door on the wagon's back. "Hey Trix!"

"Ugh, how many times have I requested that you not refer to the Great and Powerful Trixie as 'Trix?!'" The unicorn stomped her hoof.

Rainbow pretended to think about it. "Eh, I'd say two-hundred forty-seven. Would you rather I called you by your full name, Trixie Lulam-nngh!" She found her mouth magically zippered shut.

"I also warned you about calling me THAT, Rainbow Miriam Dash!" Trixie frowned, knowing that Rainbow's middle name didn't bother her the way 'Lulamoon' bothered her. She released her magic a second later. "Still, I suppose I should be thanking you for giving me the chance to show these Ponyvillians just what I am truly capable of when challenged."

"You're welcome." Rainbow Dash drawled. Then she walked over and proceeded to hold out a hoof. "C'mon don't leave me hanging…" Trixie stuck out her own hoof and tapped it against Rainbow's own. "What, that's it?"

"Hmm…." Trixie tapped her hoof against her muzzle. "Yes, Trixie thinks so."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "You are such a pill, you know that right? Here." She tossed Trixie a flower she had tucked in her mane. She flung it at Trixie only to have the showmare use her telekinesis to hold it steady while she took a tentative bite.

"Chrysanthemum! You do have good taste." Trixie allowed as she swallowed. "Fine. Here." She walked over and gave Rainbow Dash a hug. "Never let it be said that I never did anything for you."

"Gee, thanks." Rainbow snarked, but returned the hug. "Speaking of, don't you owe me ten bits?"

Trixie let go and backed up. "Um, let us deal with that later." She changed topics. "I was wondering what you were up to. I was surprised to hear that you had left Canterlot for this…town." Her pause indicated that some other, less polite word had been her first thought.

So, Trixie hadn't heard the news yet. Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up. This was gonna be gooood…then her ear twitched. She listened carefully as she heard somepony outside calling her name. "Well Trix—excuse me, TRIXIE—if you want to hear the full story, then there are some ponies I need you to meet first. They're really cool, trust me." She walked out of the wagon, Trixie sniffing but following suit.

As Rainbow Dash expected, her friends were all waiting for her outside. "Hey you guys!" She waved with one wing. "Check it out! This here is Trixie, an old friend of mine from my Canterlot days. Wasn't that a cool show? Be honest, who was better? It was me, right?" Her smile suddenly started shrinking when she noticed the expressions on her friends' faces.

Applejack sneezed, then sniffed and blew her nose into a tissue Rarity was daintily holding in front of her with her magic. Applejack's nose was red and sore looking while her expression was one that said she would be mad but she was too darn tired and sick to bother. Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash only to primly look away with her nose high in the air. Pinkie Pie sheepishly looked at her hooves as Fluttershy hid behind her mane and Twilight Sparkle was looking at Rainbow Dash with stern disapproval.

"Um…something wrong?" Rainbow asked lamely, her ears flattening across her head as she winced.

Trixie ignored the awkward tension. "Greetings! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

"Yeah. We heard." Applejack said curtly, her voice rendered somewhat nasal by her cold. She sniffed again.

Twilight sought to ease the tension. "Okay, why don't you all get acquainted with Rainbow Dash's friend…I just need to speak to her for a second." An undercurrent of iron shot through her request, making Rainbow Dash audibly gulp as Twilight led her around to the other side of the wagon.

When they came to a stop, Rainbow shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "So, uh, is something wrong?"

If looks could kill Twilight would've buried Rainbow Dash six feet under already. "Is something wrong? How can you stand there and ask me that?" She snapped. "Did you see Applejack?"

"Y-yeah, how is her having a cold my fault?"

"It is when YOU were the one who doused her with cold rain water." Twilight stomped her hoof. "And then after the rain shower you didn't clear the clouds away, so Applejack had to work that entire afternoon in the shade with cold, used up rainclouds blocking the sun."

"Oh." Rainbow said in a small voice.

But Twilight wasn't done. "And what you were doing that afternoon instead of your job? You and Pinkie were busy pranking me and setting whoopee cushion traps all over my house! I can't sit down without setting one of them off—I've already found 47 and I *still* haven't gotten them all!"

"C'mon Twilight it was just a joke!" Rainbow Dash defended hastily. "You can't be upset because of that."

"I'm not!" Twilight bit her lip. "I'm upset because…because…." She took a shuddering breath and looked town.

Rainbow walked over to give her some support, only to have Twilight back away from her. "What is it?"

"….was it all just a trick?" The distraught unicorn asked in a murmur.

Understandably confused, Rainbow Dash asked for clarification. "Was what just a trick?"

"All that stuff you said in the library…" Twilight looked up, her eyes wet. "About being glad I came to Ponyville with you, about Shining Armor and Dinky and…and was it all just buying time for Pinkie's prank?"

Rainbow's eyes widened. Oh horseapples. "No!" She said firmly, determined to put this to rest right here and now. "I meant every word! Twilight, I'm sorry…I didn't think! It all happened so fast with Pinkie coming up with a prank and…" she trailed off, knowing how lame it sounded. "Twilight, you are the coolest unicorn I've ever met and one of my best friends ever. That's the truth. I—I like pranks yeah, but I would never lie about something like that!"

Twilight sniffled. "…You promise?" She asked hopefully.

Nodding eagerly, Rainbow Dash held up a hoof and spread her wings. "May I be plucked bald if I lie!"

"You'd look pretty silly." Twilight giggled as wiped her eyes. "Thank you Rainbow Dash." She sniffed one more time, but she was smiling. "I wish I could stay but I have to get Pinkie back to the library so she could clean out all of the whoopee cushions left." Twilight paused. "Um, should I ask just how she got so many into my house in such a short amount of time?"

"What do you think?" Rainbow replied, giving her a skeptical look. Twilight nodded, conceded the point. "So, you can't stay? I mean, I was looking forward to Trixie meeting you guys…"

"Sorry Rainbow. But Cheerilee wanted to come over and talk about what books she wants to use when school starts up again and I really can't have a conversation if….you know." Twilight blushed.

Rainbow couldn't resist snickering. "Eheh. Sorry, I shouldn't laugh but…it's just too funny!" She let out a giggle. "You going on in full egg-head mode about the literary elements and theme of this book or whatever and then sitting down and…." She clopped her hooves together. "Ppppppppppth!" Rainbow blew a raspberry, chortling.

Twilight pouted adorably, her face still red. She crossed her hooves and let out a 'hmph!' "You WOULD find that funny." She sulked.

"I'm a low brow mare." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Hay, remember when we first met and I needled you for being a bed wet—HMPH!" And for the second time that day the blue pegasus found her mouth magically zipped up. That had to be some sort of record.

If Twilight was simply blushing before, now her head turned pure crimson. "Shhh!" She hissed. "You promised you'd never talk about that!" Rainbow lowered her ears and nodded contritely, apologizing as best she could without being able to speak. Twilight released her a moment later. "You really need to learn to think before you talk."

"Yeah, sorry Twi." Rainbow apologized, again. She sighed. It felt like that was about all she'd been doing with her friends lately. "So you and Pinkie gotta split?"

With a guilty little smile, Twilight rubbed her head. "Actually, Rarity and Fluttershy were taking Applejack to the doctor, so they can't stay either."

"….Oh." Rainbow mumbled. "I…I guess I'll just show Trixie around town myself. Maybe we could all meet up later?" She asked hopefully.

Her friend nodded. "That sounds nice."

Rainbow scuffed the ground. "And Twi? I'm sorry about Applejack too…could you tell her that if she doesn't want to talk to me? I mean, I'd get it if she didn't…"

"AJ'll be fine. Right now she's more upset with Rarity trying to pressure her into using these herbal teas, baths, and remedies than she is at you. It doesn't help that Fluttershy is trying to get her to stay in bed and drink lots of soup like a good filly." Twilight let out a little giggle. "In the nicest possible way of course."

"Heh, yeah." Rainbow agreed. "And uh, about the prank…say the word and I won't ever prank you again. Ever. Pegasi's honor."

Twilight pretended to think about it. "Nyaaaah. It's fine. I can't very well make you promise never to prank me while I'm planning on figuring out how to get you back." Her eyes twinkled merrily as she promised revenge prompting Rainbow Dash to give a weak chuckle back, hoping she was kidding. "Just…use your head a bit and try to take things a little more seriously, okay?"

"No sweat Twi. I promise." Dash nodded. "So, uh, we cool?"

"Yes. We're 'cool.'" Twilight nodded. "See you later Rainbow Dash.

"See ya Twi." Rainbow called back as she trotted off. As Twilight turned a corner and was out of sight, Rainbow Dash turned and found Trixie standing behind her. "Gyah! Trixie!" She snorted at her. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long." Trixie shrugged with practiced nonchalance. "Oh I just came by when the sneezing one started arguing with the white unicorn about tea." She said breezily. Her mouth twitched. "So, hm, THOSE are your new friends?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah! Uh, sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce them but they're the best friends a pony could have!"

"A huh." Trixie packed a lot of disbelief into that one exhalation. "Whatever you say…"

The pegasus gently bumped Trixie's hip with her own. "C'mon. I'll show you around Ponyville. We'll catch up with them later."

Trixie shrugged. "If they're not too busy for you…again." She spoke so lightly, so casually, but it still managed to make Rainbow Dash wince and lower her head.

"…Let's just go." She mumbled as she started walking.

Trixie smirked.

Rainbow Dash and Trixie's first stop was to Carrot Top's carrot stand to collect Dinky. "C'mon squirt, time to go….Dinky?" A low moan filled Rainbow's ears as she looked around. She peered behind the cart to see a little lavender-grey filly lying on her back, holding her stomach and groaning.

Carrot Top, who was kneeling next to her and rubbing her head gently, looked up at Rainbow Dash. "I just gave her some carrot cake! She was fine after the first slice so I offered her a second and…"

"I think I have a tummy ache." Dinky moaned, holding her belly as if afraid that it would explode if she let go.

Rainbow nodded. "After that ice cream, that stuff at Sugar Cube Corner, muffins and now carrot cake? It wouldn't surprise me Dinks." She sighed. "Ditzy is gonna _kill _me…Trixie, think you could give me a hoof?"

Trixie had taken half a step back, tugging on her cape for fear that the little filly would be sick on it. "With what?"

"Help me get her on my back…I need to take her home." Rainbow explained.

Trixie bit her lip, giving her friend an incredulous look. She tentatively reached out a hoof and prodded Dinky, as if to make sure that she wouldn't catch anything from her.

Carrot Top moved a bit quicker, gently prodding the filly up and helping up onto Rainbow Dash's back. "Up we go, honey." Dinky groaned, letting her hooves dangle off as she buried her face in Rainbow's mane. "Feel better, okay?" A low moan answered her. "Sorry again Rainbow Dash. Do you want me to talk to Ditzy?"

Rainbow shook her head, causing Dinky to groan. "No, I got this. Come on Trixie."

The showmare nodded primly and walked alongside the filly-laden pegasus as they headed through town. "Trixie is surprised to see you foal-sitting." She commented laconically. "You sure it isn't 'cramping your style' to use your phrase?"

"Nah, it's cool. I'm staying with Dinky and her mom." Rainbow said, tilting her head back so she could make sure Dinky was still with them. "You okay back there?" The filly groaned. "I'll take that as a yes." She turned back to Trixie. "The squirt's cool. Clever too."

Trixie nodded. "Ah, so not like you then." She grinned smugly. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"Yeah yeah, ha ha. Real witty."

"Can she do any magic yet?" Trixie quirked her brow when Rainbow Dash shook her head. "By the time I was her age I was already levitating cookies out of the cookie jar." Rainbow rolled her eyes at Trixie's superior tone. "What is her mother doing that she can't teach her daughter how to use her Celestia-given gifts?"

"Flying." Rainbow retorted curtly. "Ditzy's a pegasus."

"Ah." Trixie nodded as if to say 'that explains it.' "Perhaps I could show this poor deprived filly of how to perform wonders worthy of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She proclaimed. Dinky flattened her ears at the sudden noise and whimpered. Rainbow Dash shot Trixie a look. "What?"

Rainbow Dash sighed. She liked Trixie but sometimes it was like trying to explain water to a fish. "Never mind. Still, it's not a bad idea." Then she gave an awkward laugh. "I uh, already asked Twilight Sparkle to tutor Dinky." Seeing the dark look on Trixie's face, she hastened to add. "Maybe the two of you could teach her some stuff together." Trixie sniffed but didn't reject the idea out of hoof.

En route, Rainbow saw a familiar face walking up to them. "Hey Blossomforth!"

"Rainbow Dash! That was amazing!" Her eyes lit up in wonder. "The whole show was incredible!" She added, noticing Trixie. "I'm glad I got to see it."

"All in a day's work." Dash preened.

Blossomforth nodded, then winced. "Uh, yeah, speaking of work…I just ran into Raindrops."

Rainbow Dash grumbled. "Yeah? What about it?"

"…Can we talk?" Blossomforth asked, giving Trixie a small smile. "Sorry, it'll just take a second. It's some stuff from work…"

"Work?" Trixie gave Rainbow a look. The blue pegasus groaned, feeling like everypony wanted a piece of her today.

"Yeah, I'm the _Chief_" she stressed for the benefit of both mares. "—weather mare for Ponyville. Just hold on Trixie, this won't take long…" The two pegasi stepped off to the side. "So what is it now?" Dash groaned.

Blossomforth held up her hooves. "Rainbow, I'm not your enemy…I want to help, same with Cloud Kicker. We don't want this thing between you and Raindrops to become….a thing." She rubbed her neck. "That came out better in my head." Rainbow Dash snorted and looked away. "Come on…you need to see this from her perspective. The fact is that you're the chief weathermare AND a new hire. That's gotta ruffle her feathers a bit. She's a hard worker and you getting promoted over her…well…" She shrugged awkwardly.

Rainbow's eyes hardened. "You saying I'm not a hard worker?"

The white pegasus kicked at the ground, looking down. "Well, you're good at what you do, but…you're not exactly consistent and Raindrops, well..."

"Ugh! Raindrops, Raindrops, Raindrops!" Rainbow Dash almost stomped her hoof, but refrained when she remembered Dinky was still on her back. "Raindrops needs to get it through her head that I didn't 'steal' her job! I read her file and I've seen her in action: her flying is mediocre at best and she has a real anger problem and so-so pony skills. Nopony was going to put her in charge of the weather team."

"I know that!" Blossomforth exclaimed, frustrated. "You just don't have to rub it in Raindrops' face though!"

"When do I—"

"Treating work like it's just an opportunity to pull pranks? Making the last pony to finish pay for lunch when you know Raindrops is a slow flier?" She quirked a brow at Rainbow Dash. "If you keep needling her like that she's gonna blow up sooner or later. Trust me, you do NOT want to see Raindrops explode." Blossomforth shuddered. Then she stretched out a hoof. "Look, I know you've got a point. But so does Raindrops. The truth is—deep down, I think she knows she wasn't about to replace Ditzy either. But when she sees you and it's like you're not even _trying_…" She bit her lip. "I know you're an amazing flier…but maybe you could work with Raindrops and be an equally amazing weather manager? We want to see you succeed because that means we all succeed. We're not trying to trip you up or see you fail or anything…honest."

Rainbow took a breath, exhaling through her nose. "…Fine. But that pony really needs to pull the stick out and loosen up or else _I'm _the one who's gonna explode." She shook her head. "I gotta go B. Take care."

The other pegasus nodded. "You too Dash." She turned and walked away as Rainbow Dash headed back to Trixie.

What the cyan pegasus didn't notice was that as she approached, Trixie's horn shimmered and then wink, as if terminating a spell—which was the case. "Sorry about that Trixie. Just needed to take care of some work stuff, you know how it is."

"Trixie wouldn't know." Trixie said evenly. "Trixie is her OWN boss…but I suppose not everypony can be." She shrugged. "Now, I believe you were taking me to the house you were staying in?" The outside observer would hardly have noticed the emphasis she put on 'staying in' as if to stress that the house wasn't Rainbow's.

Even Rainbow Dash mostly missed it. Mostly. She grunted. "Let's go." Trixie followed her as the two resumed walking. It wasn't long before Rainbow announced, "We're here."

Trixie looked at Ditzy's house and scrunched her nose up. "You live here?"

"Yeah, this is Dizty's house." Rainbow opened the door and stepped in. Trixie followed, looking around. Because she was heading up the stairs, she missed Trixie's disapproving stare. Still, Trixie followed her up just in time to watch her gently put Dinky on her bed.

"Rai'bow Daaaash?" Dinky mewled as she curled up in bed. "I dun't feel good…"

The pegasus sat on the corner of her bed. "Yeah, I guess that's normal. It'll be okay Dinks. You just rest and you'll feel better in a bit."

"P-pwomise?" She whimpered.

Rainbow nodded as she fluffed Dinky's pillow. "I promise. Do you want me to get Favorite?"

The little filly sighed, snuggling into her pillow. "M'kay…" Rainbow got up and fetched an old, somewhat worn blanket from her bedside and tucked it around the immobile Dinky. She softly ruffled her mane before heading for the door. "…story?"

Turning back, Rainbow regarded the little filly. "Hm? Oh right, you wanted a story, didn't you?"

"Ya huh." Dinky said, looking and feeling appropriately pathetic. Rainbow came back and got on the bed next to her.

"Okay squirt." Looking over, she nodded for Trixie to come in. "My friend Trixie here hasn't heard the story about Nightmare Moon and my friends. Would it be okay if I told you that one instead?" Dinky nodded. Rainbow Dash waved Trixie over as she started her story. "So, once upon a time—I guess a month ago—I was at this party with Princess Celestia…"

As Rainbow Dash spun her story about finding her place, ancient evils, deep magics, friendship, adventure and redemption, she cast a glance to see Trixie's reaction. The showmare had tugged her hat down over her eyes, effectively hiding her face as she sat down in a chair leaning back against the wall. Rainbow described each of her friends and their amazing contributions on their quest and how they realized that they each embodied an element of Harmony—leading them to triumph over Nightmare Moon and turn her back into Princess Luna.

Dinky yawned and settled in for a nap just as she was talking about the journey home. The little pony sighed contently as she fell asleep, clutching her blanket. Rainbow Dash smiled and carefully got up off the bed without disturbing her. Trixie joined her as the two walked out together, gently closing the door lightly behind them. Rainbow Dash tilted her head, indicating for Trixie to follow her. They headed downstairs and got comfortable on the couch.

"I never thought I'd see you act so…domestic." Trixie said after a moment. "With the filly, I mean." She elaborated when Rainbow looked confused.

The rainbow pony shrugged. "Yeah I guess it is a little funny…but Ditzy made me Dinky's godmom and—I dunno. It's kinda nice." She flushed a bit, then tried to move on. "So, great story huh?" She smirked. "And amazing storytelling too! The best part? It's all true! Amazing, right?"

Trixie hmmmed. "Trixie could've improved the story-telling experience but I cannot say it was THAT amazing."

Rainbow Dash goggled. "W-what? Trix, I helped save the world!"

"Oh that isn't surprising." The blue unicorn said simply, shrugging.

"R-really?"

"Of course!" Trixie folded her hooves back behind her head. "Trixie always knew that you were destined for greatness, much like Trixie herself." She smiled toothily as she threw a hoof across Rainbow's shoulders. "The two of us are the most amazing, impressive ponies in all of Equestria! What we could do together—we could take Equestria by storm! Everypony would be in awe of us!" The consummate showmare, she knew just how to use her words to weave a bright picture for Rainbow Dash to be entranced by.

Visions of Rainbow Dash flying in the Wonderbolts uniform, with Trixie's fireworks bracketing their flight, danced in the young pegasus' mind. She shut her eyes and smiled, drinking it up. Trixie let Rainbow indulge herself for a moment before bursting the bubble. "What Trixie finds amazing is that after all that you're still HERE."

"Huh?" Confused, Rainbow shook her head to bring herself back to the here and now.

"After all you've been through, all you achieved, why are you still in this little town?" Trixie looked at her crossly. "All of Canterlot would be falling over themselves for you! You could have it all—everything you ever wanted! Everything I always, I mean, YOU always, worked for."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I…guess." She felt a twinge in her stomach that she tried to ignore. "It's not like I've given up on getting into the Wonderbolts or anything! I'm just…taking it easy for a bit. You know, stopping to smell the roses?"

"You're Rainbow Dash." Trixie said as it to remind her. "You _don't_ stop. Ever. If you aren't moving forward, you're falling backwards!"

"Aww, c'mon Trixie." Rainbow smiled despite wanting to grimace. "I'm still the most awesome pony around!"

"Really?" The showmare leaned forward. "Last month you were performing Sonic Rainbooms and saving the world. Now you're…what? Foalsitting? Pushing clouds around? Getting told off by ponies who fail to see how extraordinary you are and are too busy for you? You could be doing so much more…" Trixie settled back onto the couch, tapping a hoof against her chin. "Trixie remembers a certain pony once saying something about her dream being free to go wherever the wind took her and refused to be chained down." She commented breezily, subtly keeping a sharp eye on Dash's reactions.

Rainbow fidgeted. "It's—it's not like that. I like it here!" She fished for the right way to explain it. "I'm not chained down…I _want _to be in Ponyville! It's great! My friends are here and—and it's great!" She repeated, knowing how lame it sounded.

"If you say so." Trixie said simply, saying more in her silence than in her terse statement.

"It is!" Rainbow felt defensive and she didn't know why. "I mean, you know how nuts Canterlot made me sometimes."

"So we're blaming the city now," Her companion mused, a small smirk on her face. "But yes, Trixie does."

Rainbow nodded. "So…I wanted to get away for a bit and I found this place. And…it's hard to explain. Everypony was just so…nice. I mean, cool." She corrected herself quickly. "And it wasn't because I was Princess Celestia's student or anything: it was because I was me." She tossed her mane and gave a cocky smile. "Everything was just so…pure, I guess. Sincere. It was almost like a fresh start and they liked me, appreciated me for being me instead of who I was connected to, if you know what I mean."

Trixie removed her hat and dusted it off. "Yes, it must have been SO hard being the student of Princess Celestia, ponies always recognizing you and knowing your name." Rainbow Dash winced at the bitterness in her voice. She reached out a hoof only to have Trixie knock it away. An awkward silence fell, Rainbow scuffing her hooves on the floor. Trixie calmly examined her hoof. "Trixie supposes that for some ponies, a few friends, a menial job and living in somepony else's home can be considered a good life. But for a pony who used to live in the palaces of Canterlot, protégé of Princess Celestia and aspiring Wonderbolt…" She shrugged, deliberately letting herself taper off. "Still, what does Trixie know? She was merely performing before packed audiences in Hoofington and Trottingham, throwing bits at me and cheering my name. You?" She sighed and bit her lip. "Rainbow Dash...please don't think that I'm trying to be rude..." This despite the fact that she was doing a fairly good job of it. "...but I'm thinking of what is best for you. This," She gestured at the house and the stairs leading to Dinky's room. "This isn't you. You're meant to be out _there_, doing the incredible. Not here doing the mundane and the ordinary."

"Trixie, you don't know what it's like here yet! This place has plenty of incredible stuff. My friends..."

"If your friends," Trixie interrupted. "are keeping you from your dreams, your destiny, then perhaps they aren't really your friends. Trixie IS. Listen to Trixie. Is this what you want?"

Rainbow Dash had no answer. She got off the couch and excused herself to go into the kitchen. "You want anything?" She asked. "I think we have some apple juice in the fridge." As soon as she was out of sight, she rested her head against the smooth surface of the refrigerator. "What is _wrong _with me today?" Rainbow groaned. "I'm letting everypony down lately…" Her coworkers thought she was a slacker. Her friends thought she was a featherhead. Ditzy was gonna have her head for letting Dinky give herself a stomachache and now Trixie was acting like she let her down too. What had happened?

She shook her head. It was just an off day. Twilight said they were cool and tomorrow she'd wow Trixie with how awesome her new friends—and her new life—were. It would all come together. Right?

"Muffin! Rainbow Dash! I'm home!" A cheerful, even bubbly, voice announced as the front door of the Doo residence opened.

Trixie turned to her companion and mouthed 'muffin?' at her. "Is there something you're not telling Trixie?" She asked in a hushed whisper.

Flushing, Rainbow shook her head swiftly. "She means Dinky." She explained softly. Then she looked to Ditzy and smiled, albeit a bit awkwardly. "Heya Ditzy. Welcome back! This is my friend Trixie—she's a performer I met in Canterlot."

Ditzy beamed. "Rainbow Dash said she was expecting a friend! Nice to meet you!" She held a hoof.

Trixie leaned forward to accept it. "It is nice to meet youuUOOAH!" Her voice turned into a shriek. "Your eye!"

Rainbow Dash stiffened as Ditzy's face fell. Then the mailmare let out a gasp of her own. "Oh no! Did the middle one fall out again?" She reached up and started checking her face with her hoof. Trixie's jaw dropped in shocked horror, and even Rainbow looked confused for a second…until she saw the corner of Ditzy's mouth twitch. A second later Ditzy and Rainbow Dash burst out into peals of laughter. "Heehee, sorry. I couldn't resist." Ditzy brought up her hoof to hide her smile. "You okay?"

"Trixie is…fine." The blue unicorn brought a hoof up to her chest. "Very amusing." She gave a sickly grimace. "So, Trixie supposes that you are okay?"

Ditzy blinked at Trixie's manner of speech. "Um, yes. Ditzy is okay. Ditzy's eyes are just…a bit off. She is grateful for Trixie's concern." She smiled, pleased that she was able to make herself understood to this strange talking pony.

Rainbow Dash facehooved. Trixie felt her eyebrow twitch. "Yes," Trixie ground out. "Good to know."

Missing the subtext, Ditzy turned to Rainbow Dash. "Where's Dinky?"

"She's just laying down for a nap." Rainbow grinned widely. Both of Ditzy's errant eyes focused on Rainbow Dash as she subjected her to her best 'mom look.'

"Why is Dinky taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon?" Ditzy asked slowly.

Rainbow fidgeted. "Um…"

"Rainbow Miriam Dash…." Ditzy leaned over and looked her right in the eye, making the poor pegasus sweat even more. Ditzy had broken out her middle name. This could only mean bad things. Trixie stepped back, not wanting to get involved. She was torn between feeling exasperated at how Rainbow Dash was cringing under the wall-eyed gaze of mailpony and laughing her horn off at the comedy of it all.

"She….hasastomachache." Rainbow squeaked out, her voice cracking. The words just seemed to pour out of her. "I got her some ice cream when we were out and then everypony kept giving her a snack or carrot cake or something for being such a good filly that she just ate too much and I'm really really sorry!" She cringed, subconsciously lowering herself to the ground as she apologized.

Ditzy Doo sighed. "Oh, is that it?" She smiled as her menacing aura vanished. "I thought it was something serious! Poor muffin…" She shook her head. "Dinky has the entire town wrapped around her hoof."

Seeing that she wasn't really in trouble, Rainbow Dash offered a chuckle. "She's just that cute…and it's not like she does it on purpose or anything."

Ditzy's smile widened. "Yeah…she is. Could you imagine what would happen if she DID try to knowingly use her cuteness to her advantage?"

Rainbow Dash shuddered solemnly. "She would take over Ponyville, and then Equestria and then-the world!"

"Of course!" Ditzy declared as she burst into giggles. Then her face fell slightly. "You sure muffin's okay?" She asked, worry plain in her voice as her wings shuffled in agitation.

"Yeah, I told her a story and she was out like a light."

Ditzy visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash. You're really good with her." She leaned in and gave her a grateful nuzzle, waiting for Rainbow to flush and kick her hooves bashfully before adding, "But if you ever let Dinky get another bad tummyache I will put you over my knee and spank your rump till its bright red…again." She smirked as she walked upstairs, leaving Rainbow sputtering incoherently as Trixie started laughing.

"It—it's not like that! She's just kidding!" Rainbow Dash protested hotly, which only made Trixie laugh harder. "Ditzy! Tell her you're joking! Ditzy? _Ditzy!_" Trixie fell on her back, clutching her aching stomach. Rainbow walked over to the wall and started knocking her head against it. Hard. It was going to be one of those weeks, she could tell.

LATER…

"You can stop laughing anytime." Rainbow Dash grumbled at Trixie as the unicorn struggled to keep her face straight. It was later that afternoon and Dinky was feeling better after her nap. Ditzy suggested that the two mares take her for a walk to help her get over her stomachache while Ditzy prepared for dinner. Agreeing, Rainbow Dash took Dinky and Trixie to Twilight's library-house to start Dinky's magic tutoring lessons and hopefully get herself out of the doghouse with Ditzy. She also wanted see how Twilight was doing with de-pranking her house and try to get Trixie to connect with Twilight and—by extension—the rest of her friends. Of course, if Trixie didn't keep her mouth shut, Dash might find herself short one friend.

Trixie, however still radiated with glee. "Oh Rainbow Dash, do you honestly think I'm going to stop?" She was so happy she wasn't even using the third pony to describe herself. "Do you know how many ponies back in Canterlot would PAY to see that wall-eyed pony spank you?" She giggled. Rainbow looked around for any ideal places for a shallow grave. Seeing none, she sighed.

"You're such a good friend," She commented dryly, flicking her tail under Trixie's nose.

The unicorn snorted, rubbing her muzzle. "Careful you, or I'll tell Ditzy and she'll redden your rump!" Trixie sounded far too enamored by the prospect for Dash's comfort. Ignoring her for now, Rainbow Dash looked over to Dinky.

"How you doing, Dinky?"

"M'okay," The little filly said. She didn't sound one hundred percent at the moment but she was in good spirits, which Rainbow Dash took as a good sign. "Is Twilight really gonna show me magic?"

Trixie grumbled something under her breath as Rainbow nodded. "Sure is! Before you know it, I'll be you'll be spelling up a storm!"

"I can already spell!" Dinky said. "Miss Cheerilee says that I have a great vocab-abu…vocabulary! I can spell Maresissippi and muffin and…" Rainbow leaned over and gave her a noogie.

"Well aren't you such a little egghead?" The older pony teased.

"I'm not an egghead, I'm a muffin!" Dinky corrected primly. "Well, actually I'm a unicorn but Momma calls me muffin and I like it!" Her eyes lit up. "Do you think Twilight could teach me a spell to make muffins? It'll make Momma really happy!" She gave a little bounce as she ran up ahead, not even waiting for Rainbow Dash to answer.

"Why you—get back here!" Rainbow reared up and whinnied in mock anger before charging after Dinky, who was now laughing at the thrill of being chased.

"Don't forget about Trixie!" The showmare protested as she ran after them.

Rainbow Dash smiled, seeing the chance for revenge. "Last pony at the library has to wash the dishes after dinner!"

"Yeah!" Dinky cheered as she scampered ahead.

Trixie fumed as she poured on speed. "Get back here! Rainbow Dash, I swear your rump is mine!"

Dash and Dinky reached the library first and pounded on the door. "Just a minute!" Twilight called from the other side. The door shimmered with a purple light and opened, revealing the librarian unicorn. "Oh hello Rainbow Dash, hi Dinky Doo. What's—huh?!" She yelped as the two of them bolted into the library and hid behind her as Trixie dragged herself to the door, huffing and puffing. "Um, hello Trixie." Twilight smiled widely, looking apprehensive.

Rainbow Dash and Dinky looked at each other and shared a giggle, hi-hoofing in triumph. Trixie glowered at them. "…hate…SO much….HATE…"

"Can I help you?" Twilight asked. "Do you need something?"

"We just wanted to drop by and see how you were doing." Rainbow said. "Everything okay now?"

Twilight nodded, feeling content as she trotted around. "Yes! My house is now completely whoopee cushion free!"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Good to know."

"Hello to you too Trixie!" Twilight smiled. "That was a nice show you did earlier."

"Nice? The Great and Powerful Trixie's stunning feats of magic are more than just 'nice,' Twilight Sparkle." Trixie snorted, indignant.

Rainbow Dash nudged her. "We also brought Dinky over to start up with her magic lessons. Trixie wanted to help too so…"

"Yes!" Trixie announced, stepping forward. "The Great and Powerful Trixie intends to teach this filly everything there is to know about magic!" She gestured grandly, rearing up on her hind legs and throwing her hooves in the air.

Dinky bounced around the three older ponies cheering happily. "Yippeeee! Is there a muffin spell?"

"Muffin spell?" Twilight blinked. "I'll, uh, have to get back to you on that." She chuckled. "Let's see, to get started I have some beginners' books for young unicorns we can go over…"

"Books?" Trixie scoffed. "Trixie says that the best way to learn is by doing!"

Twilight look scandalized. "B-but all these books are written by experts! I learned by reading these books! Careful study…"

"Aw c'mon Twilight." Rainbow protested. "Watching her read sounds incredibly boring! Why not try it Trixie's way? You know, see where Dinky's at and go from there?"

"I—Oh, okay." The purple unicorn sighed. "Dinky honey, can you do any magic yet?"

The filly shook her head. "Um, I can kinda make sparks, but not when I mean to."

"That's okay." Twilight smiled. "That's perfectly normal. Now…your magic comes from inside you and is channeled through your horn." She tried to think of how best to explain it to a little filly. "It's like…imagine that there's a lake in your tummy. That's your magic. You need to concentrate and draw it up through your horn."

Dinky looked down and gently prodded her stomach. Then she looked back at Twilight questioningly. "Really? Does this mean I should drink lotsa soda to make more magic?"

Rainbow Dash hid a chuckle behind her hoof. Twilight shook her head. "No, that's not necessary…how about if we try some basic levitation?"

"Levi—levitation?" The little filly sounded out questioningly, looking at her.

"It means making objects float in the air." Twilight supplied. "Just focus on something…like this quill." She pointed to a quill on her work desk. "Close your eyes and imagine the quill inside your head. Think about how it feels, its size and color and everything you can about it. Can you do that for me?"

Dinky nodded, quickly closing her eyes and sticking out her tongue in concentration. If you were to look up the word adorable in this dictionary, this is the image that would appear next to it. Dinky's horn was surrounded by a faint white glow that faded in and out. The same light surrounded by the quill on the desk, but it only twitched spasmodically. The little filly scrunched up her face as she concentrated, her cheeks puffing out. Finally she could handle no more and collapsed on the floor, panting. "D-did…did I do it?" She said in between gasps.

"Almost." Twilight put her hoof on Dinky's shoulder. "You did very well for your first attempt. We can try again tomorrow if you'd like."

Trixie made a face. "Why wait? Let's try things MY way…" she reached out and tugged Dinky over to her. "There's an easier way to do magic."

"There is?" Dinky and Twilight asked together—one excitedly and the other skeptically.

Trixie beamed as she slung her hoof across Dinky's back and tugged her close. "The secret is to assert yourself: make things happen the way you want them to happen! If that quill doesn't want to move—make it move!"

"Yeah!" Dinky grinned, getting caught up. "I'll show that quill who's the boss!"

"Be passionate! Be determined! Get angry if you have to!" Trixie exhorted, while Twilight bit her lip nervously.

"I don't mean to question your methods Trixie, but that doesn't seem like a good…"

But Dinky was already closing her eyes and concentrating again. "C'mon….you dumb….feather!" Her legs shook as she pushed her mind against it, her horn sputtering. "Move!" As all eyes focused on her as Dinky grunted and strained, grumbling furiously about the stupid quill. The more upset she got, the brighter her horn shone until the quill pulsed with the same light and show up off the desk to dangle in mid-air.

As everypony oohed and awwed, Dinky opened her eyes to take a peek. Then she grinned and started giddily hopping in place. "I did it! I did it! IdiditIdiditIdidit!" She squeed happily. "Hooray!"

"Was there any doubt?" Trixie preened, grinning widely as she just so happened to look in Twilight's direction. The purple unicorn frowned.

"Way to go Dinky!" Rainbow Dash crowed as she swept the filly up in a hug. "Ditzy is going to FLIP!"

Dinky kicked her hooves in midair as Rainbow lowered her down. "Thank you so much Miss Trixie! Can you believe I actually did it?"

"Sure can." Trixie grinned. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is also a great and powerful teacher!"

Dinky ran over and hugged her. "Thank you! Oh, and thank you too Miss Twilight!"

"You're very welcome." Twilight was torn. She wanted to be happy for the little filly but…something just wasn't sitting right with her. "If you want to come back another time, we can keep working and…"

"Can Trixie help?" Dinky asked innocently. "She's really good at magic and stuff—I wanna learn how to make fireworks and smoke and all that really neat stuff!"

Twilight fidgeted. "Well…" She looked to Rainbow Dash, but the cyan pegasus had wandered into the kitchen and out of earshot.

"Of course I can!" Trixie interjected, answering for her. "Trixie is always willing to help out a fan. After all, every unicorn should learn how to use her magic as early possible. Why, a unicorn who can't use her magic is like…like…" She paused, as if trying to find just the right words. Her eyes flicked briefly to Twilight before adopting a Cheshire grin. "Is like a grown pony who still wets the bed!" Twilight's face lit up with a blush as she coughed, looking away. Trixie turned to Dinky. "You don't do that, do you Dinky?" She asked, her voice dripping with false sweetness.

"Nooo!" Dinky wriggled her nose. "'f course not! Only little fillies wet the bed!" Twilight slunk down in an attempt to sink below the floorboards. "I'm a big pony!"

"Yes, you are." Trixie agreed; smirking as she subtly cast her eyes towards Twilight.

Rainbow Dash came back right after that with a glass of water for Dinky. "Here you go Dinks…hey, Twi are you okay? You look a bit flushed."

"I'm fine." Twilight snapped quickly, a scowl on her face as her eyes flickered over to Trixie. "I'm just…I'm going to turn in early tonight. See you all later."

Rainbow Dash looked confused and a bit worried. "Sure. Okay. Good night Twilight."

"Nighty-night!" Dinky waved as Twilight slowly headed up the stairs.

Trixie nodded. "Pleasant dreams." She said in a syrupy sweet tone. "Don't let the bed bugs bite." Twilight stiffened then kept going, all but stomping her way up.

Rainbow looked from Twilight to Trixie. She wasn't sure of what she had missed, but she had a sinking feeling that mixing her old and new friends was going to be even harder than she had thought.

Dinner at the Doo residence was a happy affair. By mutual agreement, the three of them had kept quiet about Dinky's achievement until Ditzy asked if anything interesting had happened on their walk.

Rainbow Dash had casually shrugged and said that they just happened to be passing by Twilight's house and they decided to stop in. Dinky was all but bouncing in her seat, eager to reveal her big success but Rainbow—being Rainbow—wanting to draw it out, kept the pace of her narrative slow as if describing a boring day at the office. She had JUST gotten to the part about Twilight and Trixie tutoring Dinky when Dinky Doo burst out: "I did magic!" She squeed. "I lifted a feather and it went so high!"

Ditzy was ecstatic. She got up and sped around the table to give Dinky a colossal mom-hug. "Muffin, that's wonderful! You did it!"

"Was there ever any doubt?" Dinky said, grinning as she repeated what she heard Trixie say at the library.

Ditzy blinked, her left eye rolling sideways. "Um, no?" She was a little confused at her muffin's uncharacteristic lack of modesty but chalked it up to her excitement as an expression of justifiable pride. "I always knew you could do it! This calls for…" she looked around the room (being Ditzy Doo, she didn't even need to turn her head to do so) as she prepared to drop the bombshell. "…MUFFINS!"

"Yaay!" Dinky cheered. Trixie rolled her eyes (thought not in the manner in which Ditzy had just done) as Rainbow Dash snorted. As mother and daughter raced into the kitchen, Rainbow got up.

"Ditzy and her muffins…I swear if that 'you are what you eat' stuff is actually true, they'd literally turn INTO muffins." She stretched. "That was a pretty cool thing you did back there for Dinky."

Trixie levitated her hat back onto her head—Ditzy had insisted she take it off for dinner—and looked at her hoof with practice nonchalance. "Yes, Trixie supposes that it was. But then again, Trixie is the most talented and powerful unicorn in all of Equestria, is she not?" She looked at Rainbow expectantly. Her proud smile fell slightly when she saw her friend rub the back of her head awkwardly.

"You're really cool, no question." The pegasus was quick to answer. "But…uh, Twilight was kinda upset when we left. Did anything…ya know, happen?"

Shrugging, Trixie turned away. "Trixie did nothing. Most likely she is simply jealous of the amazing talents of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

"…Yeah, okay. Fine." Rainbow sighed. "But do you think you could try to, you know, get along with her? I mean, she's pretty cool too—in her own way."

"Surely you're joking? Twilight Sparkle is the most boring, bookish unicorn Trixie has ever met!"

Rainbow Dash felt the beginning of a headache coming on. "You just met her Trix…c'mon she out-dueled the captain of the royal guard when he was being all possessed and stuff by Nightmare Moon! THAT is pretty hardcore!"

"Trixie could have easily done the same had SOMEpony asked her to come along." She crossed her hooves and glowered at Rainbow.

"It wasn't exactly like any of it was planned!" Dash defended herself. "I mean, if I knew that I was going to be fighting an ancient evil that wanted to plunge the world into eternal darkness, I would've thought to ask for an army or two while I was at it. But it all just sort of…happened."

"Whatever." Trixie grumbled before changing topics. "Still, Trixie is…most interested meeting the rest of your Ponyville friends." She had to fight to get her face to contort into a shape that vaguely resembled a smile. "I am sure they will be quite…delightful." She almost choked on that last word.

Rainbow Dash grinned. "Oh, they are the best! Hanging with them is always a blast, you'll see!"

The next day, Rainbow Dash took Trixie over to meet her friends at Sugarcube Corner. "Everypony!" Rainbow Dash announced as she and Trixie entered. She looked around and was grateful to see that everypony looked to be in spirits than they had been when she first attempted to introduce Trixie. Applejack's cold looked better, though she sipping some broth while sandwiched between Rarity and Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie was passing out treats to everypony. Twilight just sort of looked at the table top, not really looking at Trixie or Rainbow.

This made Rainbow Dash falter slightly, but she rallied. "Now, er, let's try this again! Everypony, this is Trixie."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie." Corrected the showmare casually, turning to one side to show off her profile.

"Ooooh." Pinkie Pie said in awe, her eyes wide. "_Do svidanya tovarisch _Trixie!"

Trixie blinked. "Excuse me?"

Pinkie looked at her as if she were the one acting odd. "What, don't you speak the language? What kind of Stalliongrad pony are you?" Even her friends were confused.

Rainbow Dash shrugged when Trixie looked to her, hoping she would have some sort of explanation. Befuddled, Trixie turned back to the strange pink earth pony. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is from Neigh Orleans, not Stalliongrad. The Great and Powerful Trixie has never even BEEN to Stalliongrad!"

"Oh." Pinkie said simply. "Sorry!"

There was a pause. "…would you care to explain why you thought the Great and Power—" Rainbow nudged her, giving her a look. Trixie sighed. "Would you care to explain to TRIXIE why you thought I was from Stalliongrad?" She amended, bending as far as she would go.

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "Oh, it's just your Cutie Mark."

"My Cutie Mark?" Trixie turned to look. There it was, same (and wonderful, if she did say so herself) as ever: a light blue crescent moon superimposed on a magic wand.

"Isn't that the symbol for that party in Stalliongrad? I should know because I know all about parties, even the ones without cakes or balloons and—hmmmhmhmhmm!" Pinkie wriggled her snout, her mouth suddenly sealed shut.

Rarity, her horn glowing with magic, tittered. "Ahaha, Pinkie darling, how you DO go on. I am Rarity dear, welcome to Ponyville. You've already met Pinkie Pie." She nodded to the pink pony as her face contorted into all manner of expressions as she tried to get her mouth open. Trixie made a face of her own, only it wasn't amused. "Might I say what a…bold statement your outfit makes on you."

"Trixie delights in being bold." She replied simply.

Rarity nodded vaguely. "Yes, yes of course. But that hat…" Trixie's lip curled. She liked her hat. "If you ever were to be in the market for something more chic, I have a number of fashionable chapeaus for you! Why, some of them come with own ensembles, if you'd like to try going for a different look…"

"Ooooh ooooh oooh!" Pinkie waved her hoof in the air like a little filly in school wanting to be called on by the teacher. "If you get a new outfit, can I get your old one? It looks so fun and I love playing dress-up! I mean, I can do it now but it'd look even better with your clothes!" To demonstrate she neatly swiped the table cloth out from underneath everypony's dishes—without disturbing a single plate—and fashioned it around her neck. Then she grabbed a napkin and with a few deft swipes turned into a peaked hat not unlike Trixie's own. Affixing it to her poofy mane, Pinkie Pie ran into the rest room.  
Silence fell.

"What—?" Trixie began, but never got a chance to complete the thought.

Just then a burst of white powder (most likely flour) heralded the appearance of Pinkie, still wearing her makeshift magician's garb. "I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRRIXIE!" She announced grandly, rolling her Rs and spreading her hooves just like the original. "DO NOT BE TOO HASTY IN ENTERING THAT ROOM…I HAD TACO BELL FOR LUNCH!" Rainbow Dash snickered. Trixie's eye twitched. It had been doing that a lot lately. She feared if she didn't leave Ponyville soon it would develop into a nervous tic.

But Pinkie Pie marched right up to the sniggering Rainbow Dash and poked her muzzle right in her face. "You dare laugh at the Great and Powerful Trrrixie?! Be careful, for I am no ordinary unicorn! If you are after mere parlor tricks, you will be sorely disappointed. For if I reach behind your ear, it will not be a nickel I pull out, but your very sooooooul!" She waved her hooves in front of her, making a spooking 'oooooo' noise as she some how made little green spirals appear in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash was pounding the table with one leg and clutching her belly with another. "Hahaha! Make it stop! Oh Celestia, make it stop! Hahahahaha! It—it hurts too much to laugh!"

Twilight nudged her. "Rainbow Dash!"

"What?" The rainbow mare giggled. "Trixie knows it's just a joke, right?"

Trixie forced herself to stop scowling and nod. "Oh yes, it was very…amusing." She coughed. "Twilight Sparkle, you simply must stop being such a wet blanket." She smiled as the purple pony jerked as if stung, flushing and looking down again. Trixie looked to the next pony.

"Howdy." Applejack nodded as she held a tissue up to her nose. "Ah'm Applejack. Pleased t'meetcha."

"Likewise." Trixie deadpanned flatly. "And what is your name?" She looked to Fluttershy who let out a soft squeak and buried her face behind her mane. "…A huh."

Rainbow Dash coughed, rubbing the back of her head. This wasn't going the way she expected…well, no, she took that back. Except for Applejack being sick this is pretty much the way any introduction of her friends would go. "This is Fluttershy—my old pal from flight camp." She tossed a hoof across Fluttershy's shoulders, lifting her up to eye-level.

Eeping softly, Fluttershy let out a tiny smile. "Um, hi. Nice to meet you. A-any friend of Rainbow Dash's is a friend of ours…if you don't mind, I mean."

Trixie smiled neutrally. "Well, it was certainly a pleasure meeting you all." Her eyes flickered to Twilight briefly. "Rainbow Dash, I believe you said that you wanted Trixie to walk Dinky home from school with you?"

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Oh yeah. We gotta go—we'll swing by the farm in a bit, okay AJ?"

Applejack nodded. "Sure thing…ah'll be in the fields. Nothing cures the cold better than a bit of honest work."

"See you later alligators!" Pinkie waved, Gummy having somehow appeared on the end of her hoof. Trixie didn't even question it. She beat a hasty retreat, Rainbow Dash flying alongside her.

"Pretty cool, huh?" She performed a barrel roll that left her hovering upside down in front of her friend.

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Cool…." She echoed, making Rainbow's face light up. "…if you're a flight school drop out."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Come on Trixie…"

"No, you come on!" Trixie retorted, looking up and away. "A farmer, a baker, a vet, a seamstress and a librarian? In Canterlot you and I knew royal guardsponies, famous musicians and the elite of the elite. Now? You're just slumming it."

"Hey! Just because they aren't high-class doesn't mean they aren't cool! I don't see any royal seal on your birth certificate." The blue pegasus shot back.

"It isn't about class!" Trixie snapped her head around to glare at her. "Trixie CLIMBED her way up from stages made of soapboxes to Vaudeville productions to having her own show! These ponies…what've they ever done?" She made a face. "And don't bring up Nightmare Moon again—they did ONE thing that was amazing. That doesn't make them amazing ponies. I am amazing—and so are you." Her voice lost a touch of its hard edge. "You could be doing so much more than pushing clouds…"

"It's what I want Trixie." Rainbow Dash replied firmly. "Now let's just pick up Dinky and drop her off at home." She righted herself and continued flying to the school.

Scowling, Trixie kept quiet as she trotted after her. But she was far from letting this drop. "I will help you Rainbow Dash…" Trixie swore. "Whether you like it or not."

Dinky was overjoyed to see her godmom/super-cool big sister and her new magic teacher come to pick her up from school. "Today was so much fun!" Dinky hopped along. "At recess I got to show everypony how high I could lift things with my magic! When Lickety Split's ball got stuck in a tree, I got it down without anypony having to get Miss Cheerilee!"

Rainbow Dash ruffled Dinky's mane. "Hey, that's great!"

Trixie nodded. "I'm sure all your little friends were impressed."

Dinky giggled, pushing Rainbow's hoof away from her tousled mane. "Yeah! Pipsqueak let me see this comic he and the other colts-Featherweight and Chowder and the others-are making about a space pony. He let me pick her name! I called her Puppysmiles." She beamed. "Everypony shared their snacks and wanted to sit next to me on the swings…nopony's ever done that before!"

"That's what happens when you're the most talented filly around!" Trixie smiled. Rainbow Dash did too, happy see Trixie taking a shine to some part of Dash's life in Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash gave Dinky a nuzzle. "Okay squirt, me and Trixie are going to go visit Applejack. Maybe while we're there we'll pick you up some nice apple muffins and pie!"

"Yaay!" Dinky whooped as she charged to her house, shouting for her mother to tell her all about her day.

Trixie gave Rainbow Dash a glance. "So you're really taking me to a farm? You sure know how to show a pony a good time…"

"Chillax Trixie." Rainbow nudged her. "Follow me." She led her friend down the road, out of Ponyville proper until they found themselves surrounded by trees. "This is Sweet Apple Acres—Applejack's place." Rainbow Dash gestured with her wing, pointing at the apple trees as they walked down the path to the farm. "This is the first place in Ponyville I ever saw. They let me crash here for a bit since I didn't have anyplace to go."

"Trixie will be generous and assume that you didn't mean 'crash here' literally." The unicorn quipped cheekily.

Rainbow snorted. "As a matter of fact, I didn't. They say they grow the finest apples in Equestria here."

"Hmph. Trixie will be the judge of that." She tugged an apple off from a branch with her magic and levitated it over to her. Trixie took a slow bite, chewing thoughtfully. Her eyes lit up as she swallowed and proceeded to take another bite. Her cheeks bulged with apple as juice dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. Rainbow's gentle cough reminded Trixie that she had company. She quickly swallowed and tossed the rest of the apple aside. "It…was not the worst Trixie has ever had." She allowed magnanimously.

"Uh huh." Rainbow Dash's tone was neutral but the expression on her face was anything but. She rolled her eyes as they continued onwards.

Trixie refused to meet her friend's gaze. "So they have apples…and more apples. And look! Even more apples. Why are you taking Trixie further? To see if there are more apples? Trixie is fairly confident that there are. So what else around here could be so…interesting…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes came across the most magnificent pony she had ever seen outside of a mirror.

It was a stallion, but what a stallion! He was huge, practically rippling with muscles! His coat was red, his mane and tail a sandy blond. Without noticing the two mares he turned around—giving them both a fine view of his backside in the process. The two mares shivered and sighed. Then he lashed out at the nearest apple tree, forcing it to give up its rich bounty as he grunted and sweated.

Trixie and Rainbow Dash just watched him work, appreciating his…work ethic. They were so entranced that they didn't even notice Applejack approaching them. "Well howdy partners!" The two caught mares gave a sudden start, whirling around. "What brings ya'll…down…." Applejack peered past them, seeing her big brother bucking the trees and the flushed expression on her visitors faces. She snickered, pulling her hat down over her face to hide her expression.

"A-AJ! It's not what you think!" Rainbow blustered, her face red. "I just brought Trixie down to—to…" She gave up, seeing Applejack's shoulders tremble with suppressed mirth. "Not. One. Word." The pegasus growled.

"Shucks, I don't figure ah got t'say a word." Smirked the farmpony smugly. "So what can I do for you…besides ask my brother to see if he's got a fillyfriend?"

Rainbow Dash groaned. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Heh, you bet your bit I ain't! First Shining Armor, now Big Macintosh? Do you just have a thing for big brothers? Should I ask the other gals if they have any stashed away somewhere?" She chuckled. Rainbow Dash fell to her knees, clutching her hooves together.

"Applejack, you can't!" While Rainbow Dash pleaded for some way to walk out of this with her reputation and dignity intact, Trixie subtly crept away. She was rather good at that.

She had only gone a little ways before she found another pony in the orchard. This one was a little yellow filly with red hair and a matching ribbon. She looked to be about Dinky Doo's age. The filly looked up with wide eyes. "Golly." She said. "You're that magic pony from town!"

Trixie tossed her cape, letting it blow dramatically in the wind. "You are correct! I am indeed—The Great and Powerful Trixie!"

"Whoa…." The filly's eyes now seemed to occupy half her head. "Ah'm Apple Bloom! And you're—amazing! Being all magical and stuff must be your special talent!" She peered around to look at Trixie's cutie mark. "Ah wish ah knew what my special talent was…."

It was then that Trixie noticed the filly's noticeable lack of a Cutie Mark. "Hmm. You're rather old to be without a Cutie Mark…"

Apple Bloom's face fell, tears building at the corners of her eyes. "C-can you help me? Can you make my Cutie Mark appear?"

Trixie tapped her muzzle in thought. "Hmm…your sister's Cutie Mark is three apples…and your older brother's is a half apple…"

"So you're saying mah Cutie Mark has something t'do with apples?" Apple Bloom hopped giddily only to stop short when Trixie shook her head.

"Trixie would certainly hope not! A Cutie Mark is supposed to represent a pony's uniqueness—how unique could you be if you had the same one that your older brother and sister have?" She shrugged.

Apple Bloom bit her lip. "But…"

"But nothing!" Trixie stood tall. "A cutie mark is more than a reflection of your talent, it is a mark of destiny! Everypony's destiny is their own! It is not to be passively passed down or patiently waited for—it must be sought!" She stamped her hoof passionately. "In pursuit of your destiny—nothing and nopony can stand in the way! Nopony!" Tears welled in the corners of her eyes but were quickly obscured when she drew her cape close around her.

"B-but I love mah family!" Apple Bloom's lip trembled. "But ah want mah own Cutie Mark too! What should I do?" The poor filly looked so lost and distressed.

Trixie straightened her hat. "Trixie has journeyed all over Equestria—from Canterlot to Hoofington and from Las Pegasus to Seaddle. Trixie has seen much, experienced much that revealed her true talent as a magician and stage performing wonder! Perhaps what you need is to see more of the world; see all there is to see and find your Cutie Mark out there!" She pointed at the horizon. "The chances of you finding your own Cutie Mark on a tiny, bumpkin dirt farm in a backwoods town are miniscule when compared to the odds that you'll find somewhat across the vast whole of Equestria!" She grabbed Apple Bloom around the shoulders and waved her hoof in front of her, encompassing everything in front of them.

Apple Bloom's eyes widened. "Yer right! All this time I've been looking for mah Cutie Mark here in Ponyville! Ah got to get out and go to a bigger place!"

"Many a young filly has found her destiny in the big cities, like Manehattan or Fillydelphia." Trixie encouraged. "Why, the Great and Powerful Trixie herself started out with nothing but now look at her!" She paused as she gave the filly a chance to do just that. "When I went to Manehattan as a filly, I had nothing! Leaving my family to pursue my destiny was the best decision I ever made!"

"Huh?" Apple Bloom's tiny brow furrowed. "Ya had t'leave yer family to get your Cutie Mark?"

"They were holding Trixie back." The older mare sniffed dismissively. "No pony ever achieved anything clinging to their mother's leg."

"…" Apple Bloom looked down. "Ya mean…t'get mah Cutie Mark I'm gonna have to…" She bit her lip. "Ah—ah got to think about this…thanks Miss Trixie."

"You are most welcome!" Trixie smiled as she walked away. She returned to where she had left Rainbow Dash and Applejack—only to find the two of them grappling and fighting in the dirt. Big Macintosh had walked over and was observing the scuffle with practiced neutrality.

Trixie looked at him, wondering if he had been watching them fight with the same interest that Trixie and Rainbow Dash had while they were watching him work before recalling that Applejack was his sister. "Are you two quite done?" She asked, directing her focus to the two scrapping ponies. The two separated rather easily and began dusting themselves off. It was then that she realized that it was a good natured scrap between friends as they were both examining bruises and ruffled manes, but were smiling as they did so.

Applejack, noticing Trixie's return, shot her a small apologetic smile. "Heh, sorry 'bout that Trixie." Applejack took off her hat, holding it over her face sheepishly. "Didn't mean to drive you off 'r nothing. Just some good ol' funning, right?" She nudged her.

Trixie rubbed her side and frowned at her. Applejack lowered her head. "Oh."

Rainbow Dash gently cuffed Trixie with her wing. The unicorn sighed. "…Fine."

Applejack smiled, feeling at ease. "Glad to hear it. Feel free to come on down anytime you like! Give me some more warning and we'll have you over for dinner! Sorry, ah can't hang out with you gals right now—turns out one of our cellars sprung a leak. Ah'll catch you all later, alright?"

Rainbow Dash was disappointed but rallied. "Oh, sure. No prob AJ. Rarity wanted us to drop by anyway. We wondering if you had any apple pies or muffins around? I promised Dinky because—"

"Because she's becoming a true magical prodigy, thanks to my expert tutoring!" Trixie butted in, nudging Rainbow to the side with her hip.

AJ looked at her funnily. "Uh sure. Hold on…Big Mac?"

Her brother nodded in understanding. "Eeyup." He trotted off to the house.

"Aheh. Guess'n you and Twi taught that li'l filly a few new tricks?" Applejack inquired. "Ah know how much her an' her ma love muffins."

Trixie scrunched up her nose. "Trixie taught her how to properly access her magic…Twilight Sparkle still needs some aide in mastering more, ah, basic skills." She smiled. "Do be sure to mention that to her?"

"Uh, sure." The farmpony agreed, not really understanding. "Still, it's good t'see you helping out the young'uns. Ah'm sure her family appreciates it."

"Quite sure." Big Macintosh returned a moment later, carrying a fresh apple pie on his back and a box of apple muffins bound in string by his teeth.

Rainbow Dash took both. "Thanks a lot big guy! See you later Applejack…Big Macintosh." She added, a touch shyly.

"Eeyup." The big stallion agreed. "Miss Dash. Miss Trixie."

Underneath her cape, Trixie felt the fur along her spine rise as she heard him say her name. She shot him her most winning smile before she found herself being abruptly dragged off by Rainbow Dash.

The walk back to town was mostly done in silence. Then Trixie spoke up. "Shining Armor? The captain of the royal guard?"

"Huh? What about him?"

The unicorn just smiled. "I always knew that you had a crush on him!"

"I DID N—oh shut up!" Rainbow grumbled. "One more word and I'll leave you here." Trixie shrugged. She had said all she needed to. Thoroughly needled enough for one day, Rainbow Dash walked on in silence as she led Trixie to the interestingly designed building aptly named the 'Carousel Boutique.'

"Hey Rarity! Me and Trixie just wanted to….stop by?" Rainbow Dash trailed off as they saw Rarity attempting to pull a ponyquin out of the door, grunting and straining as she tried to pry it loose. "Uh….need a hoof?"

Rarity abruptly stopped pulling and whirled around, standing in front of door in a poor attempt to block the ponyquin from sight. "Ahaha hello darlings! Welcome to the Carousel Boutique where everything is…something. Nothing to see here, everything is under control!"

Rainbow Dash and Trixie exchanged a wordless glance then looked back to Rarity. The white unicorn's smile stretched to an uncomfortable size as she tried to create an air of normalcy for her visitors. From inside they heard a fillyish voice.

"Rarity! Have you seen the dress I made? I—heeey! What's it doing in the doorway?" Squirming out from underneath the inanimate pony blocking most of the door, Sweetie Belle marched up to her sister and pouted. "I made that dress special for you!"

"Sweetie—darling!" Rarity knelt down to talk to her sister, giving Rainbow Dash and Trixie a look at the fashion catastrophe that appeared to be directly sewed onto the ponyquin. It was an orange dress with sloppy green zigzag stripes running all around it. Sequins were splashed all over in an inconsistent pattern, it was frayed at the edges…and Sweetie Belle couldn't have been prouder of it. Hence the reason for Rarity's distress. "I know and I simply love it! I just…wanted to bring it outside so more ponies could see it!"

"Oh…." She smiled sweetly. "Thank you Rarity! You're the best big sister ever!" She hugged Rarity, not noticing her sister's guilty grimace.

"Aheh yes…so, ah, Rainbow Dash! Trixie! What can I do for you?"

Rainbow Dash coughed. "Uh…we were just stopping by to say hello. Hello." Trixie waved silently.

Sensing a rare opportunity, Rarity acted quickly. "Oh Rainbow Dash I'm glad you're here! I have this darling new outfit that would look just wonderful on you!" Rarity horn flashed. Rainbow Dash dug in her hooves but found herself being dragged along by Rarity's magic. The ponyquin was kicked aside as Rarity entered, Rainbow Dash pawing at the ground feebly.

"H-help meeeeee….!" The door slammed with a ringing finality as Trixie and Sweetie Belle were left alone outside.

After a moment of silent prayer for the poor pegasus, Trixie looked down. Sweetie Belle looking up at her. "Hi!" She said with a voice that radiated innocence. "I saw your show, it was really good! Would you like me to make a dress for you too?" She beamed.

"Yes, Trixie is amazing...and her outfit already reflects this." She flicked her cape.

"So….you don't want me to make you something?" Sweetie drooped. "Darn! Now I'll never get my Cutie Mark or be like my big sister…"

Trixie made a face. "Just what is it with fillies in this town desiring to emulate their older sisters? Has nopony ever heard of originality? Of course, not everypony can be like the Great and Powerful Trixie after all…" She looked at the Sweetie. "Listen filly, nopony ever became famous for doing exactly what another pony did—ESPECIALLY if they're imitating an older sister."

Sweetie Belle bit her lower lip to prevent it from trembling. "But I wanna be a great fashion designer like Rarity!" She ran over to the downed ponyquin. "See? She likes it and if Rarity likes it, that means it's good! That's why she…she…left it in the dust." The poor filly lowered her head and sniffled as she regarded the fallen model and the dress, still attached to it. "It's terrible, isn't it?"

"Yes." Trixie said bluntly. "As Trixie said, you shouldn't be trying to be like her anyway. It seems to me that any pony who doesn't appreciate her sister's efforts to help cares more about her outfits than she does about her family."

The sound of sniffling filled the air as Sweetie Belle's eyes filled with unshed tears. "B-but I just wanted to help!" She bawled before she turned and ran down the street. Sweetie didn't get too far before Trixie easily outpaced her and blocked her path.

"You didn't let Trixie finish." She said bluntly. "Instead of attempting to imitate your sister, you should be looking to discover your own path—like Trixie!"

The filly sniffled. "S-so I should try to find my cutie mark for doing something else?"

"Precisely!" Trixie flicked her cape, letting the wind catch it and make it billow around her. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is unique! One of a kind! She set out to make her own mark on the world—and did! Nopony needs a copycat. Why go for the knock-off when the original is around? Be an original—like me!"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. "Oooh—I get it!"

Trixie nodded. "Excellent! Now, I should probably go save—"

"Rainbow Dash! Get back here!" Rarity's yell snapped them both back to the Boutique where the Pegasus in question practically exploded out of the front door and slammed it shut behind her, panting heavily.

She looked up at Sweetie Belle and Trixie. "Get over here and help me! She's crazy!"

The two unicorns looked at each other and burst out laughing. Rainbow Dash was halfway in a pink frilly…thing…around her hips and under her tail. "R-rainbow! What is that?" Trixie giggled.

"I told you, she's gone nuts!" Rainbow Dash grunted as she braced against the door as Rarity fought to open it. "She's invented clothes that are supposed to go underneath other clothes!"

"Clothes…underneath other clothes?" Trixie chuckled. "You wouldn't even see them! What's the point in making them so…frilly and lacey and...?" She tried to think of another appropriate adjective.

"Pink!" Giggled Sweetie Belle helpfully.

Rainbow groaned. "I know, I know! I told her just that, but she—!" The banging against the door increased. "Let's get out of here!"

"Agreed—once more I, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall pull your fat from the fire."

"Hey, who are you calling fat?! I remember that time you filled your face at that restaurant in Canterlot when it served authentic Neigh Orleans food..."

"Oh shut up and come along before I leave you behind." Trixie interrupted, a bit grumbly at the reminder of that fateful night—oh her poor digestive system hadn't been the same since!—but also a bit snarkily at being able to toss Rainbow Dash's earlier threat back at her.

Just then Rarity, remembering she had a back door, came around from the side and gave chase. And that is how Trixie and Rainbow Dash ended up running through Ponyville from a vengeful fashion designer; the cyan pegasus wearing the first known Equestrian undergarments in history.

After that bit of chaos, Rainbow Dash had a weather patrol shift to go to. Cloud Kicker was adjusting some cirrus when she saw Rainbow flying up. "About time boss. You're—why are you flying like that?" She cocked her head when she noticed her gait. Dash was flapping more slowly than usual, holding her hindquarters in an odd position. "What, did Ditzy finally turn you over her knee and—"

If looks could kill, Cloud Kicker would've been cremated and scattered to the winds. She flinched. "Shuddup." Rainbow Dash grunted.

Undeterred for long, Cloud Kicker continued to press her. "So was it rough banging or did you just up the power on a toy too high?" Rainbow had a look of disgust as she shook her head, grumbling under her breath about Rarity and her stupid clothes, still flying gingerly. Shrugging, CK let it drop.

"So, everything going alright? No major screw ups?" Rainbow asked, shifting the conversation to work.

Kicker nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine." They worked in silence for a few minutes before Cloud Kicker coughed. "So, how're things working out with you and the 'Great and Powerful' one?"

"Everything's FINE, CK." Rainbow emphasized as she started pushing a cloud into position.

"Good to hear." The lavender pegasus replied, her frosty tone indicating that it was anything but. She sighed as she decided to drop any semblance of subtlety on Rainbow Dash. "Dash, seriously how can you let her back into your life again?"

Rainbow stopped and looked at Cloud Kicker. "You're still upset over that? Kicker, that was ages ago!"

"I was on KP for two months!" Cloud Kicker shot back. "Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to peel potatoes?"

"I thought you were given three months."

"They kicked me off KP after they caught me shaping cucumbers into…well, that's not important!" Kicker crossed her hooves. "Trixie is trouble Dash. I know you don't want to admit it, but it's the truth."

Snorting, Rainbow shook her head. "You're letting those rumors get to you. Hay, if I believed all the rumors about you, I'd think you were some skeezy, spouse-stealing whorse." She smiled, reassuring Cloud Kicker that she didn't believe anything of the sort. "You have your, um, eccentricities, I guess they're called. But so does Trixie. It's the same thing."

Cloud Kicker shook her head. "No. It isn't." She sighed. "As much as I like banging and having a good time, I have rules to prevent somepony from getting hurt. Do you really think Trixie has any?" She flew off, not waiting for an answer.

Rainbow Dash plunged her hoof through a cloud, breaking it apart and dissipating it. She grumbled. Clouds made poor targets for releasing anger. Why was this so difficult? It was like trying to put together a puzzle but with pieces from three different puzzles!

"Rainbow Dash!"

Speak of the smooze…she looked down to see Trixie looking impatiently back up at her. "What is it Trixie?"

"Trixie wanted to see you in action at your new…job." Her face twitched. "I think that when you told Trixie that it was good for practicing your flight routines, you were being overly generous."

Rainbow snorted. "What're you talking about? This job is great for practice! I've gotten tons of experience by flying through unfriendly weather or getting a feel for wind currents by positioning clouds."

Trixie yawned. "Sounds frightfully dull. The Rainbow Dash *I* knew would've settled for nothing less than flying through blizzards and dodging lightning bolts. Trixie is merely afraid that you've gotten…soft."

"Hey! I am just as good as I ever was! Better even!" Rainbow boasted.

"Oh yeah?" Trixie grinned. "Prove it."

"Anywhere, anytime!"

Looking around, Trixie's eyes landed on one of the clouds Rainbow was supposed to push around. "Okay, how about this: I use my magic on those clouds. If you don't get them into their proper position in say, ten seconds, they go off."

"Go off? What's that mean?" Rainbow Dash looked suspicious.

"What does it matter?" Trixie posed innocently. "If you're so good, then it won't matter. Unless of course…you don't think you can do it."

Drawing herself up, Rainbow shot her best cocky smile at Trixie. "Please. Anything you can dish out, I can take. And I'll bet you I can do it in FIVE seconds!"

Trixie smiled, lifting her hat off her head and revealing her flashing horn. "Very well then—get to it!"

Without another word, Rainbow launched into action. She grabbed a cloud and shoved it into position. She appeared as little more than a blue streak as she sped by. Soon clouds littered the sky. Unfortunately, her attention was suddenly called away but a sudden shout. "Rainbow Dash!"

Pausing for just a second, Rainbow missed the deadline and the cloud she had been pulling suddenly combusted into a loud cacophony of firecrackers, streamers, a shot of lightning that struck Rainbow Dash in the rump. "EEYOWCH!" She shrieked, rubbing her sore behind. "Trixie!"

The powder blue unicorn tugged down her hat to hide her laughter, but the shaking of her shoulders gave it away. Angrily, Rainbow Dash glared at the source of her distraction and saw Raindrops. So not only had she interrupted her, she saw her backside getting fried. Marvelous.

A ghost of a smile crossed Raindrops' face as she flew over. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Rainbow grumbled, crossing her hooves. "Just a little training that SOMEpony interrupted! So why don't you go back to doing—whatever it was you were doing, someplace else?"

Raindrops looked at her boss then down at Trixie and put it together. "I hate to sound like a broken record Rainbow Dash, but you really shouldn't have somepony tamper with the clouds. I mean, we're responsible for them. What if something went wrong?"

Trixie stamped her hoof. "Are you questioning the abilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Trixie has everything under control!"

The jasmine pegasus looked down at Trixie as if she was contemplating calling the asylum to see if they had any recent escapes. "…A huh."

"Look Raindrops, it's FINE. I got this." Rainbow Dash insisted.

Raindrops groaned. She didn't really want to get into a fight with her boss, not after Cloud Kicker had sat her down after the last one. "Look, Rainbow I—IEEEEK!" She yelped as the cloud behind her chose that very instant to go off, blowing some very cold wind and rain into a VERY personal spot. Rainbow Dash snerked as Trixie started coughing. Raindrops shivered from withers to hoof but tried to move past it. "That's what I was talking about! I mean, what if that ha—OW!" She winced as a lightning bolt smacked her hindquarters. Rainbow Dash fell backwards onto a cloud and started laughing as Raindrops grasped her backside. The weatherpony seethed. "Trixie!" She looked down at the smirking unicorn who didn't appear to be doing anything. "If you don't cut that out right now I am going to—WHOA!"

Raindrops started spinning in place as a cloud quickly spun around her, turning the pegasus into a yellow colored tornado as she went zipping all over the place before impacting down on the ground. "Uuurgh…." Her eyes spun like Ditzy's. She seethed as her wits returned to her. "THAT'S IT!"

Snorting angrily, she climbed to her feet and charged at Trixie, bellowing like a stampeding buffalo. Rainbow Dash, zipped down to interpose herself between them. "Waitaminute Raindrops, it was just the clouds! Trixie didn't—" The enraged pegasus knocked Rainbow over like a ninepin as she charged at her real target. Trixie, seeing the fire in Raindrops' eyes, tried to use her magic to help her. She conjured up a piece of rope and attempted to hogtie the rampaging pony. The rope snapped, unable to hold Raindrops back or even slow her down.

Eyes widening with panic, Trixie back-peddled furiously, stammering out apologies but the jasmine pony was too far gone to hear them. A yellow hoof stretched out to knock out Trixie's teeth when it was blocked by a lavender one. "That's enough Raindrops." Cloud Kicker said evenly. "Simmer down or else we're going to have to throw down."

Rainbow Dash rubbed her sore noggin as she sat up to watch what could have been the match of the century: Raindrops—strong as an earth pony and about as stubborn, prone to violence and with anger management issues that made Rainbow look like a cool daytime breeze. And Cloud Kicker—athletic, trim (as her many companions could attest), with great reach and a graduate of West Hoof and trained for guard duty since she was a foal. This could get ugly. Dash held her breath.

Fortunately, the moment passed. While Raindrops was still clearly furious, her impulse to maim seemed to have abated. She snorted and turned her head before stomping off. Her hooffalls were so heavy that she literally left mini-craters in the ground as she went. Cloud Kicker sagged in relief. "I'm really glad I didn't have to fight her." She commented. "I've seen that pony break harder things than clouds with those hooves."

Rainbow Dash dusted herself off as she got up. "Yeah, thanks CK."

Trixie made a face as she sought to recover her elegant poise, wiping the sweat from her face. "That pony is crazy! Shouldn't you fire her or something?" She demanded of Rainbow Dash.

"Now wait just a minute!" Cloud Kicker protested, stepping between the two of them. "Raindrops might have been out of line but—"

"Out of line?! She tried to kill me!" Trixie shrieked.

That prompted an eye roll from Cloud Kicker. "She wasn't going to kill you." She said flatly.

"Then what do you call that?" Trixie demanded.

"Free dental work." CK deadpanned. "Rainbow, it's not like she wasn't provoked. Those clouds Trixie enchanted…"

"Were meant to go off on me." Rainbow Dash gave her a look. "She just…got in the way."

"So it's just a coincidence that three of them went off on her? In a row?" Cloud Kicker made as if to smack herself in the head. "I know you're kinda oblivious sometimes boss, but that's really pushing it."

Trixie nudged her aside with her hip. "She attacked me! And she hit you! You're her boss! She should be fired!"

Cloud Kicker nudged her back, none too gently. "Dash if you fire her everypony is going to think it's just because she got on your case about taking the job more seriously. It won't look good to the higher ups in Cloudsdale or the folks around here."

"You are the boss." Trixie reminded Rainbow. "If you allow yourself to be bullied by your subordinates," she cast a sharp look at Cloud Kicker. "Then what's the point? Nopony respects a doormat."

Rainbow Dash groaned, massaging her head with both hooves. "I'm not a doormat…and I'll make my own decisions, thanks!"

The lavender pegasus snorted. "Fine." She flapped her wings to gain altitude. "We all know everything works out just fine when you do THAT. See ya later boss."

"CK…" Dash held out a hoof as Cloud Kicker flew off. She lowered it and sighed, dipping her head. "Great. That's all I need. What else can—"

"THERE Y'ARE YA SCHEMING VARMINT!"

Rainbow Dash looked disgusted with herself, this day, and the universe in general. "They come to me. They always come to me. How do they find me?"

Applejack stormed down the street making a beeline for Trixie and Rainbow Dash. Following in her wake was the more elegant but no less furious trot of Rarity.

"How dare you?!" Rarity hissed, narrowing her eyes and lashing her coiled tail in a way that made her look a lot like Opalescence. Dash had heard that over times pets come to resemble their owners. She guessed it made sense that it could work both ways.

Rainbow groaned. "What is it now?"

Applejack pushed her hat forward in determination. "We got a bone ta pick with this smooth talking, snake-oil salespony what calls herself Trixie!"

"Quite so!" Rarity pointed her hoof at Trixie. "_J'accuse! _You're the one who filled my poor Sweetie's head with libelous slander and slanderous libel!"

"With what now?" Rainbow Dash scratched her head.

Trixie drew herself up and sniffed. "The honest and innocent Trixie did nothing of the sort."

"Like hay you didn't!" Applejack snapped. She looked at Dash. "Yer friend here," she jerked her head. "Up and tol' mah li'l sister that Sweet Apple Acres was nothing but a little old dirt farm and that she'd be better off leavin!' Don't try to deny it!"

"I'm sure this is all just a big…" Rainbow started, but Trixie cut her off.

She sniffed, examining her hoof with indifference to her accusers. "Trixie would never deny helping a poor filly with some much needed advice."

"Advice?!" Rarity practically shrieked. "You made Sweetie Belle think that I hated her designs!"

"Don't you?" Trixie asked with false innocence.

"That's hardly the issue! Thanks to you she's thinks I care more about dresses than I do about my own sister!"

"Again, don't you?" Trixie repeated, her eyebrow quirked upwards.

"Certainly not!" Rarity drew herself up. "Fashion may be my passion, but Sweetie Belle is my dear sister!"

The showmare yawned. "It is hardly Trixie's fault if she pointed out that dressmaking is not her forte and that it might be better for her to find a different hobby."

Rarity's nostrils flared in a distinctly un-ladylike way. "You mean like being more like YOU? The tackiness of your outfit is matched only by the tackiness of your whole self!"

Rainbow Dash interposed herself between the two huffy unicorns before they started horn fencing. "Whoa…okay, just chill out!"

"I most certainly will NOT chill out!" Rarity stamped her hoof. "She made Sweetie Belle hate meeee!" She wailed.

Trixie shrugged. "If your sister likes Trixie more than she likes you, well…" She shrugged as she pulled the brim of her hat down. She shot Rarity an infuriatingly smug grin. It was that grin that pushed the fashionista over the edge. Trixie found herself tackled to the ground by Rarity, who could take no more. The two of them proceeded to wrestle there in the street, kicking up and cloud of dust punctuated by the odd shriek, biting of legs or the tugging of manes.

Rainbow Dash facehooved. "Oh come on!" She reached into the dust up and started fishing around for somepony to grab. "Applejack, help me."

AJ snorted. "Ah, let'em duke it out. 'Sides, what about Apple Bloom? This arrogant polecat practically told her to run off to the big city and leave her family behind!

"Um, didn't YOU do that when you were her age?" Rainbow Dash asked, as she tried to grab somepony with her hoof only to come up empty.

"And it was a big mistake!" Applejack retorted with heat, her face flushed. "It was selfish an' irresponsible and jest plain dumb!"

Dash stood up and crossed her hooves at her. "If I remember, that's how we met—you saw my Sonic Rainboom in Manehattan and got your cutie mark for coming home?"

"Rainbow, you aren't listening to me." Applejack urged.

"I'm listening just fine! Sounds to me like all Trixie did was offer your little sisters advice and you guys are blowing it all out of proportion!"

"You weren't there! Apple Bloom had a suitcase half-packed and was bawling her little eyes out, thinking the only way to grow up and get her cutie mark was to run off and leave 'er family behind!"

That made the pegasus wince. "Well, I'm sure—she didn't mean it like that. She was just trying to help…"

"Yeah, right Rainbow." Applejack rolled her eyes. "An' maybe pigs'll be learning to fly and take your job." She sighed, trying to soften her demeanor. "Look sugarcube _we're _the ones trying to help you with this here Trixie problem."

"'Trixie problem?' What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Rainbow demanded, shoving her face up close to Applejack, forcing her to take a step back. "Trixie is my _friend_. You remember what friendship means, don't you Applejack?"

"Rainbow I'm jest trying to—"

"To what? Try to get between me and one of my oldest friends?" Dash was getting really steamed and worked up, her nostrils flaring and her tail lashing angrily behind her. Her voice was sharp, accusing and it practically seemed to cut through the air. Even Trixie and Rarity paused their grappling to listen. "Ever since Trixie came into town I've been trying to work things out so we could all be friends! But NO! You—" she jabbed a hoof at Rarity. "hijacked me into being your model and stuck me in those weird frilly things of yours, which—by the way—rode up so high that I needed a crowbar to unwedge those things from my haunches! And you—" She whirled on Applejack. "The first thing you do is try to humiliate me in front of her by bringing up Shining Armor and tease me about your brother? And now you're telling me that TRIXIE is the problem? Why? Because she talked to your sisters, now you're ready to beat her up and throw her out of town? What the hay you guys, no seriously-what. The. Hay?"

Applejack bit her lip. "Rainbow I—"

Apparently Rainbow wasn't really looking for an answer because she kept going. "This is unbelievable!" Dash stomped her hooves. "Everypony wants a piece of my flank today! Cloud Kicker! Raindrops! You two—I'm sick of it! If Trixie is too much of a problem for you, then maybe I'm too much of a problem too!"

"Rainbow Dash…" Rarity bit her lip.

"Leave me alone! Everypony, just leave me ALONE!" Her wings snapped open and she streaked upwards, leaving the ground—and her problems—behind her.

Trixie dusted herself off and made herself scarce as Rarity and Applejack hung their heads, feeling utterly dejected. She had no sooner turned the corner than she started sniggering. "These small town rubes are SO easy to play..." She trotted off, her head and tail high in the air. For a change, somepony was watching her.

Twilight Sparkle frowned. "This has gone on for long enough..."

Twilight took a deep breath. She had on her most serious expression as she trotted after Trixie. "Trixie! Wait!"

The blue showmare stopped and languidly turned her head to see who was calling her. "Oh. It's you. What do you want?" Her tone was indifferent, bored.

Taking another breath, Twilight decided to be as direct as possible. "I saw what you did back there."

"Really…and what did Trixie do?" She asked innocently.

"You know what you did…you egged Rarity and Applejack on. You were trying to get them mad with you so they'd make Rainbow Dash get upset at them instead of you."

Trixie yawned, slowly clapping her hooves together. "Oooh, well done Twilight Sparkle. You've succeeded in pointing out the incredibly obvious. What is your next incredible trick going to be, adding two and two? Spelling your name?" She smirked. "Keeping your sheets dry?"

Twilight colored but refused to budge. "Y-you won't get away with this." She shouted. "Rainbow Dash is our friend—she won't abandon us just because you've gotten her worked up."

The powder blue unicorn snorted. "Oh please, Twilight Sparkle. Do you really think your pathetic little town and your pathetic little friends with your silly little 'friendship' can have any hold on a pony like Rainbow Dash? She is like Trixie—bound for greatness. Together, we can become rich and famous as the most talented unicorn and pegasus in _all_ of Equestria!" She reared up, spreading her hooves in the air as if trying to grasp the future she imagined for herself. "I know that Trixie is destined for greatness and Rainbow Dash will help me achieve that greatness!"

"So that's all she is to you? A performance partner? I thought she was your friend—shouldn't you care what _she _wants?" Twilight pressed. Trixie just sniffed in response as Twilight pushed ahead. "And you're wrong—Rainbow Dash is _not _like you. She's brave, steadfast, loyal and true!"

Trixie tittered. It was one of the most insufferable noises Twilight had ever heard. "Oh please…I knew Rainbow Dash from her time in Canterlot, we spent most of a year together. You've known her, what? Perhaps a month? What do you know?"

"You may have known her when you were both in Canterlot." Twilight admitted. "But it's quality, not quantity, that counts. I've seen her pushed to her limits and under pressures you can't even begin to imagine. At every step of the way, she was resilient and loyal—something you know nothing about."

There was something in Twilight's eyes that made Trixie lose whatever it was she was about to say next. She shrugged. "Then I suppose we'll see who Rainbow Dash wants to be loyal to: the Great and Powerful Trixie?" She let her cape flap dramatically in the wind. "Or the weak and wet Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. She could feel the blood pooling in her reddened cheeks as she blushed at having her foalhood shame so breezily trotted out and rubbed in her face. She opened them and met Trixie's smug gaze, her face red but her voice even. "You're not going to provoke me or make me run away because you bring up something that happened to me when I was a foal." Trixie mouthed something at her tauntingly. It was 'bed-wetter.' Twilight saw red, only this time it was with anger. "I may have wet the bed until I was eight." Twilight snapped, feeling uncharacteristically fierce. "But at least I'm not the one who is totally full of _horseapples!_"

With that, she turned and walked away at the same moment as Trixie. Somehow, she counted that as a minor victory—despite Trixie having succeeded in getting under her skin. The thought must have shown on her face because she had only taken a few steps before somepony addressed her.

"Don't let her get to you. Trust me on this." Twilight turned around and looked around just in time to see Cloud Kicker settle on the ground, folding her wings against her sides.

Twilight's cheeks burned. "Y-you heard all that?"

The lavender pegasus nodded, trotting over and draping her foreleg across Twilight's back. "Hey, it's no big thing. Trust me, you won major points in my book for standing up to that nag."

The studious unicorn gave a small grateful smile but then looked away and sighed. "I…I don't know what to do. How do I make Rainbow Dash see just how manipulative and selfish and—and cruel!—Trixie is?"

"If I knew I'd be telling you." Kicker sighed. "That pony has one seriously messed up outlook on life."

Two thoughts crossed Twilight's mind at once. The first was 'look who's talking.' The second was more relevant and useful. "You…know Trixie? I mean, it makes sense considering you and Rainbow Dash were in Canterlot together but were you…" She shook her hoof.

"Friends? Friends with benefits?" Cloud Kicker sniggered at Twilight's expression. "No to the second and I don't know to the first." She tossed her head. "Follow me and I'll explain everything."

Twilight agreed, the two of them walking through town together. "O-okay. Um, where are we going?"

"My place." Cloud Kicker said simply. Twilight froze. The pegasus noticed and gave Twilight her most supportive I'm-not-going-to-jump-your-bones-unless-you-really-want-me-to smile. "C'mon it's not like that! It's a bit of a long story and I want to be comfortable while I tell it. I promise, there'll be no funny business." She winked. "Unless you want there to be some."

A vague nod coupled with a choked-off cough was the best answer Twilight could give under the circumstances. Still, she followed Cloud Kicker to her house. To her surprise it wasn't the seedy den of inequities and carnal delights Rainbow Dash made it out to be (Twilight supposed it was her own fault for listening to Rainbow's outlandish stories without checking for herself), but was instead a rather nice, homey typical Ponyville house.

Cloud Kicker opened the door for Twilight, a gesture of kindness the purple unicorn appreciated…she was less touched when she realized that Cloud Kicker was taking the opportunity to stare at her plot.

Not even slightly abashed at being caught the pegasus proceeded to walk in and sweep a pile of odds and ends off the couch with her wing. She patted the spot next to her invitingly and, against her better judgment, Twilight sat down.

"So…" she began, hoping to ward off any awkward advances from her host. "What can you tell me about Trixie?"

"…" Cloud Kicker sighed, stretching her hooves behind her head. "Okay, well a little background is needed first. You know how Rainbow Dash pulled off her Sonic Rainboom, got Princess Celestia's attention and became her student—but before all that she and I used to be part of this little circle of friends at Summer Flight Camp, ya know, just like the anthem goes. Ditzy Doo and Fluttershy were in it too. Anyway, she wows everypony with her Rainboom and the Princess makes Dash her personal student. Good for her, she earned it." She added, making sure Twilight understood. "But it was a bit of a bummer when she left to move to Canterlot." She sighed. "She occasionally wrote letters to Eepysqueak, er, Fluttershy, but it just wasn't the same. After flight camp ended my parents enrolled me in West Hoof, in Canterlot."

"I guess Rainbow Dash was happy to see you." Twilight said encouragingly.

"Eventually yeah, but it's not like we hooked up as soon as I arrived and—that is not what I meant when I said hooking up!" Kicker stuck out her tongue at the suddenly red-faced Twilight who was imagining the prospect of one of her best friends 'hooking up' with the mare sitting next to her.

"Oh. Sorry." Twilight said meekly.

CK snorted. "I swear, you have a one track mind…perv." She chuckled at the indignant look on Twilight's face. "Okay, so anyways, I did manage to catch up with her…sometimes I had to sneak out of West Hoof to do it. Heh, the trouble we got into…" Her smile was wistful. "Do you know DJ-P0N3?"

"Uh…no?" Twilight said hesitantly.

"You don't know what you're missing: best disc jockey in all Equestria! Hosted some real jammin' parties…me and Dash used to sneak in and party until we got thrown out. We actually got to meet Vinyl—that's her real name, Vinyl Scratch—she was really cool. We were like best buds—three ponyteers."

Twilight nodded to indicate she was following. She didn't really see the point yet. "So…how'd you meet Trixie?"

Cloud Kicker sat back, her eyes focusing at nothing. "Okay, here's how it went…"

"_Come on CK, we'll be late for the show!" Rainbow Dash urged, dragging me through the crowd. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't nearly as excited as she was—I mean, sure it was cool of Vinyl to get us these tickets but…a magic show? Really?_

_Scratch had heard about this supposedly 'wicked performer' who had a real flair for pyrotechnics. She wanted us to see if we thought it'd be worth trying to incorporate it into Vinyl's DJ-ing. She couldn't go herself but she arranged to get us both tickets. I was a bit surprised by how excited Dash was getting, but then again, she always did like free stuff. Though really, who doesn't?_

_A unicorn usher took our tickets. "Balcony 4, seats 1a and 1b." She drawled in a bored tone. "Thank you and please enjoy the show."_

"_I'm sure we will…" I said smoothly. Hey, don't give me that, this unicorn was cute! But don't feel jealous, she wasn't as cute as you Twilight. "In fact I'd like to show you my real appreciation for you right now…backstage. If you catch my—OW! Rainbow Dash!"_

_Dash might not be the biggest pony around but when she sinks her teeth into your ear, you aren't going anywhere she doesn't want you to go. So after I was totally blocked by my best friend, she dragged my rump to our seats._

_Rainbow Dash glared at me…don't tell her I said this, but when she's trying to be all menacing and dangerous and those rosey-pink-magenta-whatever eyes of her narrow? It's totally cute. No, I'm not interested in her like that! It's just…well, I think it's cute. That is, when it doesn't scare the crap out of me when she's really, REALLY serious about something. But she was used to me hitting on random ponies so she wasn't that annoyed. Relatively speaking._

"_Can you ever just…turn yourself off for five minutes?" She pouted at me. Again, adorable. "We might have missed the start of the show!"_

"_Aww, c'mon Dash! It's just a little old magic show. Why don't I go get that cute usher's name? On the way back I'll even pick us up some refreshments from concessions before it starts?" I wheedled, to no success._

"_This isn't a movie theater." She reminded me. "…I already checked." She added with a grumble. "Totally lame."_

_Couldn't argue with that. She did think to bring some bottled water and she already helped herself to about half a bottle before the show started. It was kinda muggy inside. _

_The curtain lights dimmed and the curtain rose a minute later. There was a single spotlight on an empty spot on the stage._

"_Look at the nothing, look at the nothing." I said to Rainbow in a stage whisper. She snorted. All of a sudden there was a burst of smoke and some magic flashes and there she appeared, hat and cloak and everything._

"_A purple cape and pointed hat? Ew." I made a face as I whispered to Dash. "I'm a naked pony and even *I* know that's a Fashion Don't." She chuckled._

_On stage Trixie was introducing herself…so we had a good while before the show properly started. "Welcome fillies and gentlecolts! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She raised her hooves and sparklers and fireworks went off, accompanied by a musical burst which I soon realized was played every time she announced her name. Every. Single. Time. I grew to truly HATE that theme over the next hour or so._

_Trixie meanwhile was still going on. "By the time you leave, you will all have witnessed the amazing, the incredible, and the unbelievable! You all have never seen magic like this before! You might think that the Great and Powerful Trixie," cue theme. "is just another performer. But to judge Trixie by any previous standard is to make a serious mistake! You haven't seen TRUE magic yet!"_

"_Can't really argue with that." Rainbow Dash grumbled to me, her enthusiasm waning as Trixie went on._

"_This is an example of a time when parents should have crushed their foal's dream of becoming a performer." I sighed. _

_Rainbow nodded. "This introduction gives you time to finish your drinks, talk a little, and decide to see another show."_

_Trixie meanwhile conjured up a bouquet of flowers which she proceeded to sniff before tossing out into the audience…and she was STILL monologing about herself! "The Great and Powerful Trixie—" cue music and me clenching my teeth, "intends to ensure that everypony here has the most thrilling and inspiring time of your lives! This show will stop at nothing…"_

"_And stay there." I said, making Rainbow giggle._

_Trixie cast a quick look upwards. I guess she might have heard her. And then she continued. "When I was starting out, I remember what Hoofdini said to me. The first thing Hoofdini drilled into me…"_

"_Was Hoofdini." I said, making Rainbow Dash bite her hoof to prevent from exploding with laughter._

_Finally Trixie decided to get on with the show. "Now, in order to keep this short…"_

"_Oh why start now?" Rainbow asked. I groaned and held my stomach. "What is it?"_

"_It's either the show or indigestion…I hope it's indigestion."_

"_Why?" She asked._

"_Because it'll get better in a little while." We hi-hooved._

_Then the show began in earnest. Trixie performed some fairly typical magic. "Huh, she's speeding up the pace of this thing, finally." Rainbow Dash said._

"_Yeah," I replied. "I guess she figured that a moving target is harder to hit."_

_Trixie started pulling stuff out of her hat, some flashy lights, making herself vanish. I cheered...until she came back. "Should've known it was too good to last." I grumbled._

_Rainbow chuckled. "You know, there's somepony else I'd rather see vanish from the theater."_

"_Who?"_

"_Us!" She answered as we snickered._

_Trixie actually used her best magic in promoting herself and punctuating her own name. I kept myself amused by making witty retorts and seeing Dash squirm as she tried not to burst out laughing. "If I run out of yawns, can I borrow some of yours?" I whispered to her at one point._

_Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Cut it out!" She punched me in the shoulder, smirking._

"_Clinical boredom did not exist before this show." I intoned solemnly, making her squirm._

"_Q-quit it!" She giggled, making some of the ponies in the audience below look up at us and frown. I winked at them. They just turned up their noses and harrumphed in typical Canterlot fashion._

_The show—and Trixie—went on…and on…and ON. "If you hear a door open and close." I whispered to Dash. "That'll be the sound of the theatre director giving up and leaving."_

_She squirmed in her seat, trying not to laugh out loud and get in trouble. The last time she disrupted a performance—I think it was at the Canterlot Ballet—Celestia made her apologize by going to one of the rehearsals and taking part—in a tutu and everything._

_Trixie used her magic to conjure up these…I don't know how to describe them. They looked like foal-drawn doodles of Trixie fighting and beating a horde of mythical monsters…I can only assume by boring them to death. _

_I said as much to Dash and that made her snort really loudly. It was hilarious. "K-kicker stop!" Rainbow asked, holding her stomach as its contents sloshed around. She really shouldn't have drunk that much water. "C-c'mon! You're gonna make me pee!"_

_I just smirked as Trixie continued her narration. "And the plot thinnens." I said solemnly as Rainbow smacked me in the shoulder, her face going all red and tears starting to well up in her face as she suppressed the urge to laugh. So of course I couldn't help pushing her just a little bit more._

"_It feels as though Trixie has been performing for years…" Trixie droned._

"_Yeah, tell us about it!" I murmured into Rainbow's ear. She was squirming, right about ready to break._

"_..and there's always been one thing Trixie has always wanted."_

"_To decide who lives and who dies?" I guessed. Rainbow was just about dying herself trying to hold it in._

_Trixie looked at the crowd. "The Great and Powerful Trixie…" Damn that theme! "has wanted something ever since her career began."_

"_For it to end?" I whispered to Dash. That was the straw that broke the pony's back. She exploded, laughing so hard she fell out of her seat. But that didn't stop her…she was literally rolling in the isles, hugging herself and laughing until she cried! I felt no small amount of pride at that._

_Trixie however was royally P. . "Trixie demands to know what is so funny!" She stomped her hoof._

_Rainbow somehow managed to crawl over and drag herself up over the balcony railing. She was still sputtering as she answered. "Y-you…you never shut up!" Rainbow burst out laughing again. "Dur, I'm the Loud and Boring Trixie! I keep talking so nopony will realize that my magic's about as good as an elementary school talent show performance!" Then she was off again. What's worse, for Trixie anyway, a couple of other ponies started laughing too._

_Trixie got even more steamed. "It is clear that an uncultured lout like you knows you cannot match the style and majesty of the Great and Powerful Trixie and are reduced to sniping and heckling out of pure petty jealousy!"_

_Well, that got Rainbow Dash to stop laughing. She leaped out of the balcony and flew up to Trixie, getting right in her face. "Jealous? Pff, you wish! I'm the greatest flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdale! I can fly rings around whatever silly little magic tricks you pull out of your hat! Just watch!" Rainbow zoomed up as high as she could go inside the theatre and started performing swift dives right into the panicked crowd only to pull up just in time. She performed loop de loops, barrel rolls, and this really wicked maneuver where she flew so fast that she made this rainbow contrail as she went and used it to sketch images in the air. Her cutie mark, some funny faces, even one of the Princess! Needless to say, it was really cool and the audience liked it._

_Trixie wasn't about to stand for that. So she flashed her horn and grabbed hold of one of Rainbow Dash's, well, rainbows and spun it around her. She turned it into a rainbow colored tornado that just swept Dash up and spun her around until she impacted down on the stage. Even from the balcony, I could see Rainbow's eyes doing their best impression of Ditzy's. Trixie took a bow and everypony applauded and laughed. _

_That stung Rainbow Dash right in her sore spot…no, not her rump. Her pride. She got back up, stumbled a little, but as soon as her eyes and stomach settled into their proper place Rainbow was up and flying again._

_As Trixie was celebrating herself with fireworks and sparkly things, Rainbow Dash flew right through them like one big obstacle course. She is a really great flyer, both in terms of speed and agility. Tell her I said that though and I'll deny it. _

_After that, it was a whole back and forth to win the approval of the crowd—you saw the show they did here in Ponyville? That gives you a pretty good idea. Only difference was that this one wasn't scripted or planned. And Trixie did NOT enjoy sharing the spotlight. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and tied Rainbow Dash with some rope and hung her from the rafters. She smirked as if she'd won and continued her show. Thing is, the rest of the show just wasn't as good as when she and RD were competing. After a few minutes of tepid applause, Trixie realized it too. I'm sure it just killed her, but she let Rainbow Dash down and they finished the show trying to outdo one another. If it wasn't for the theatre owner insisting that they wrap it up so they could close down, they might never have stopped. _

_The curtain came down, everypony applauded for like a solid five minutes. Afterwards I flew down behind the curtain to make sure Rainbow Dash and Trixie weren't trying to murder each other or anything. Instead, I found the two of them sharing a table and downing cups of water. You should've seen it. They were slapping each other on the back, toasting each other and praising them to the skies._

"_Cloud Kicker!" Rainbow Dash shot me this manic grin. "Aha, this is Trixie—but you knew that, right?" She grinned. "Weren't we just AWESOME out there? The most amazing pegasus in Cloudsdale and the most awesome unicorn in Canterlot—ha ha, it's like it was meant to be!" She slipped a hoof around Trixie and gave a sideways hug. "I can just tell we are going to be best buds forever!"_

_Celestia save us all._

Twilight sat, enrapt as Cloud Kicker finished her story of Trixie and Rainbow Dash's first meeting and the friendship that ensued. "…after that, they were inseparable." Cloud Kicker finished.

Twilight looked confused. "I would've thought that they would have hated each other. I mean what with their…um…" She struggled for the polite words.

Fortunately Cloud Kicker didn't operate under any such constraints. "Massive egos? Yeah. It's a weird thing." CK shrugged. "My parents used to tell me this story that if you get two old soldiers together from opposite sides of a war they'll either be mortal enemies or fast friends for life. With Trixie and Rainbow it was the latter. I guess the boss could allow herself to be impressed because Trixie's skills didn't rival Rainbow Dash's own and they weren't of a kind Rainbow Dash could imitate, being a pegasus and all. So we all started hanging out, sometimes with Vinyl, sometimes on our own.

"At first, it was great. Then I started noticing things about Trixie that made me uncomfortable: like the way her ears perked up whenever Rainbow Dash talked about the Princess or life in the Palace…Hay, when Trixie first found out that Dash was the Princess' student she almost flipped her lid. When we went out she used to play up Rainbow's connection to the Princess all the time—getting the best seats, free meals. She treated Rainbow Dash as her personal key to the city. It made RD really uncomfortable. Eventually Trixie toned it down, but only to use it more judiciously when it really mattered…to her that is."

Twilight winced. "I see." Cloud Kicker nodded.

"Yeah well, I didn't think too much about it…until later that is. She and I weren't really that close—not quite friends, more like we had a friend in common. Then all of a sudden she got really chummy with me. This was just after I got busted by my CO for table top dancing at this bar in downtown Canterlot…don't give me that look. Anyway, he made a big stink in front of Dash, Trixie and Vinyl about what a disgrace it was to the 'long and honorable' history of the Kicker clan in the Royal Guard and how influential we are in the Royal Guard, blah blah blah." Cloud Kicker snorted. "It was right after that when Trixie started getting nicer around me."

"That's…that's pretty horrible." Twilight bit her lip. "What makes a pony willing to use other ponies like that?"

Kicker fidgeted. "As much as I'd like to just say that she's a jerk plain and simple, I can't. Not that she isn't a jerk, mind you. But…I should explain. I found out a bit about her past thanks to Rainbow Dash issuing a shot drinking challenge and Trixie's inability to turn down a challenge. Oooh, the dirt I dug up on both of them." She smirked, putting her backhooves up on a low table.

"Um, weren't they underage?" Twilight asked. Cloud Kicker nodded as if to say, 'yeah, and?' Clearly, Twilight wasn't making herself clear. "Wan't that really dangerous?"

Cloud Kicker grinned. "Hey they were both young mares in pretty stressful roles and they needed to blow off some steam. I wasn't drinking—much—so I made sure nothing bad would happen. Now, do you want know or not?"

Twilight sighed, but nodded as she settled back to let Cloud Kicker tell her what happened.

_It was a Friday night in Canterlot. I had managed to switch my shift with another trainee so I could get out of the Academy for the night and Rainbow was just looking for an excuse to blow off some assignment she was supposed to be doing for the Princess. Trixie was enjoying the nightlife and tossing her status as a (minor) city celebrity around._

_We had gotten a private table away from action—Vinyl Scratch was DJing—and started talking about stuff. Trixie called for a toast to celebrate her most recent success and she called a waitress over. A rather cute waitress in a sexy little black and white dress that failed to cover her tight, pert…huh? Oh, sorry. No, I wasn't drooling. It was just, uh…ANYWAY!_

_She came over with a glass of a whiskey called Jura. Vinyl swore by the stuff, some high-brow classy Canterlot musician had turned her on to it…among other things. _

_We all took a sip. It had a smooth texture and a smoky taste with overtones of oak. It was good…something that could be nursed and enjoyed throughout the evening._

_So of course Rainbow Dash slammed her glass down and shouted, "Shot contest!"_

_I groaned. I really didn't want to deal with Rainbow Dash drunk. Dealing with her sober was challenging enough. "Dash, c'mon…having some drinks is one thing but a shot contest? You know that can't end well."_

"_Pfff!" She just waved me off. "C'mon Kicker pony-up! Are you a pegasus or are you a chicken?" She looked to Trixie. "Trixie's in on this, right Trix?"_

_Trixie pouted at Dash's continual habit of contracting her name, but shrugged. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is never backward in going forward…why are you laughing?" She demanded of me, who put more thought into that statement than she did. After a moment she got it and blushed. "Pour the shots!" She blurted, trying to move past it._

_A few shot rounds later found Rainbow and Trixie getting royally plastered. Dash wasn't exactly a light-weight but she didn't exactly have a lot of body fat to absorb the booze. I also suspect Trixie might have cheated and used her magic to limit the impact of all the whiskey on her. Not that it helped that much as she was still pretty tipsy._

_After around midnight Rainbow Dash passed out but Trixie was still conscious, if tipsy—I think she cheated but I can't be sure. Anyway she was royally smashed, started talking in a Neigh Orleans accent with some Prench thrown in and started gushing about herself and how 'stunning' she looked in purple._

_Don't worry, Rainbow was fine…maybe not in the morning after I brought her back to the castle. Princess Celestia was so worried that she put Rainbow in her own bed…and woke her up the next morning with a full-blown drinking lecture in the Royal Cantertlot Voice as RD was suffering through her first major hangover. I would've paid anything to have been there for that! Yeah, I know I'm a good friend, thanks for saying so Twilight._

_After Rainbow conked out, Trixie looked at me, swaying slightly in her seat. "Y-you think you're so great cuz you've got your whole family in the Goyal Ruard? Feh!" I should point out that at no point during the evening did I say anything remotely LIKE this. I DID say that perhaps I could call some cousins of mine to help give her a lift back to her stage carriage._

"_The Powerful and Great Trixie—I mean the Preat and Gowerful…no, the GREAT AND POWERFUL Dixie…wait? Gah!" She pointed at me with her hoof, knocking over her drink. "Trixie had to struggle to get where she is today?" She announced proudly, drunk off her rump. "I *hic!* left my family when I was a little filly to make my own way! I didn't even have my cutie mark yet!" She stood up and turned around, practically shoving her plot in my face. "See? My flank was blank as a…a…thing that's really blank." She wiggled her rump at me. What's with that look Twilight? NO! I didn't 'tap that flank'…not that it wasn't a nice butt, though frankly I've seen nicer…I'm on a low fat-head diet anyway...where'd you even learn that expression anyway? On second thought, never mind. I don't really want to know._

_After driving the point home Trixie put her plot back in her seat and continued her drunk pontificating. Interestingly, the more she drank the less drunk she got. I mean, she stopped being a fun drunk, slurring her words and getting mixed up on her own title and started being really depressed. She spoke more clearly and without any of the hyped-up glamour, arrogance or pizzaz that you or I'd normally associate with Trixie._

_She grumbled, a regular grouse. "Trixie's family was poor…Trixie's father was a factory worker and Trixie's mother was a farmer…they had plain ordinary cutie marks you saw on plenty of ponies: gears, plows, hammers and sickles…they didn't have any great destiny." She absently swirled what's left of her drink in her glass. "They were downtrodden, poor, beaten down by life. Everyday they dragged themselves back from the factories and the fields half-dead; barely able to put food on the table, let alone try to talk to Trixie or help her practice her magic or play with her or…" She trailed off, looking down. For a moment I thought she had passed out._

_Then she started speaking again, this time so quietly I had to lean in just to hear her. "…Trixie knew, even as a little filly, that she didn't want to grow up to be like them. So I ran away."_

_I knew she was being sincere when she dropped referring to herself in the third person. I half-wanted to say something but, I don't know…I was afraid that I'd just make her clam up. Somehow, I knew she had to get this off her chest, for her own sake. "I ran and hitch-hiked and snuck aboard trains just so I could get to Fillydelphia. It took me almost a week to get there from Neigh Orleans. When I got there I was starving. I didn't even have two bits to rub together. What little I had taken with me was used up just to get me that far." Trixie rested her face in her hooves. "That's when I first saw them: the Fillydelphia street performers. I had seen them before on the streets of Neigh Orleans. To me, they were like something from another world: they sat on the same dingy corners I walked, but they way the acted and spoke it was like they pulled you into another place full of the wondrous, the extraordinary…and all of the mundane mendacities of life just fell away and in their place was something far grander. So when I got to Fillydelphia, the city where everypony goes to make it big, I knew that the life of a performer was what I wanted…of course, seeing the hats and bags full of bits might have influenced my decision too."_

_She took another sip of her drink, coughing as she slammed it back down. "I busted my rump, trying to perform the tricks I've seen other magicians do with what little magic I knew. The few bits I got were more out of pity than anything else. But it's not like I had any other prospects so I kept at it. For weeks and weeks I kept it up, barely scraping by to get food, living in shelters or sleeping on park benches. Finally, I started to get it. My magic was growing stronger and my tricks were working. Some charitable ponies even hired me to do their foals' birthday parties or Cutie-Ceañera or Cutie Markvitzvahs. Slowly my name started to get out there. Open nights at local businesses, talent contests, any chance to test myself and improve, I took it. Then one day I decided to go for it. I announced my grand-debut in Fillydelphia Square. I even had my own stage—a crude, hoof-made thing. But it was enough."_

"_Over a hundred ponies came. I introduced myself as the Amazing Trixie and performed every feat of magic I knew. But it wasn't enough." Her shoulders sagged. "I could tell they weren't impressed. There was this one trick I was working on…but I could never do it. But there was no choice." She swallowed. "I was so nervous my knees shook, straining my magic so hard that I gave myself a migraine…but I still couldn't do it."_

_"I felt my magic reserves being drained and I couldn't perform my spell…but just then there was this…explosion of light for lack of a better word. All of a sudden, I felt my magic being amplified—not a lot, but just enough. Fireworks, the biggest Fillydelphia had ever seen, went off. Everypony loved it. It was all I could do to bow and not fall over."_

_She smiled wistfully. "Afterwards I was signing autographs and shaking hooves when who should come up to me but none other than Hoofdini himself! The greatest magical performer in all of Equestria! I was stunned. He congratulated me on my show and offered to take me under his wing to learn the tricks of the trade. He even gave me this hat and cape." Trixie gently brushed her tacky garb with something approaching adoration. "That's when I got my Cutie Mark and I knew, I was destined for greatness."_

Cloud Kicker paused, getting up to get a drink of water. All this talking at left her parched. She brought a glass of water back for Twilight too.

She accepted it gratefully, shaking her head softly. "That's…actually pretty impressive. But also sad…did she ever get back in touch with her parents? I'm sure they were worried about her."

"Trixie never said." Cloud Kicker replied. "But I'm guessing she didn't…even drunk, she didn't like talking about them. I don't think she ever sent them so much as a bit. As proud as she is of herself for making it so far, she'd sooner like to forget—and for everypony else to forget—anything that happened before she became Great and Powerful."

The purple unicorn bit her lip. "Now I feel kinda bad for being so angry at her…"

"Wait a few minutes," Cloud Kicker drawled as she sat back down. "I'm not finished…"

_Trixie glowed with memories of her triumph and drank another shot. Her good mood dissipated as soon as she finished. "S'not fair…"_

"_What isn't?" I asked._

_She just glowered balefully at me and then at Rainbow Dash as she drunkenly snored, her face smushed against the table top._

"_I had to work hard to get where I am…" she grumbled. "I had to struggle and plan and sacrifice to make it to the top. I became the Great and Powerful Trixie by working with the best magicians in the trade, learning their secrets, wheedling them out of other performers and then striking out my own. Rainbow Dash pulls off one great trick and the Princess takes her home and makes Dash her personal student and she isn't even a unicorn! I'm the magical wonder of our generation! Why her and not me?"_

_Okay, now I know she was drunk, but I couldn't let that pass. "Come off it Trixie. Magic isn't everything you know. Rainbow earned her spot. Besides, do you really think Princess Celestia wouldn't have chosen Rainbow Dash if she didn't think she was worth it?"_

_Trixie grunted. "Oh yeah? If she's such a GREAT student," She sneered, albeit a touch tipsily. "Then what's she doing slumming it here instead of doing…whatever it is a Princess' student should be doing?"_

"_Having fun with some friends?" I offered, getting a touch annoyed. Or maybe more than a touch. "What would you do if you were Rainbow Dash?"_

_Trixie slammed her hoof down, making all the glasses clatter. "I'd actually DO something with my position as the Princess' student! What's the point of having all that power and status if she doesn't make the most of it?"_

"_Like what, exactly?" I asked._

"_Like making sure her friends were set for life!" Trixie proclaimed. "She should be asking Celestia about trying to get me into her School for Gifted Unicorns or into the royal court itself!" I blamed her uncharacteristic bluntness on the booze…but I didn't think it made her say anything she didn't mean. "If Rainbow Dash were a real friend she'd either use her position to help me out or she should just quit and join me in taking our show on the road!"_

_Well, that's when—whoa, Twilight! Settle down! No need for that sort of language…yeah, yeah I know she is. Just calm down. You good? Sure you don't want me to stop? You look kinda worked up…maybe I could get you a drink, do something to take some of that pressure off…okay, okay. Fine. Anyway, I told her rather bluntly that her idea of what friendship means was really off. Friendship isn't just about what your friends can do to help them out._

_She just looked at me like a two-headed hippogriff. "You don't understand…" she said, sounding mournful. Looked like all that alcohol was really taking its toll. "If-if you have talent like me…or Rainbow Dash I suppose…it means you have a special destiny. Not everypony has one. If you do, then it's your responsibility to make that destiny real! You can't let anything hold you back! Rainbow Dash isn't moving forward…she's content just to goof off and hang around Canterlot when she should be doing what I did—use every opportunity to advance and make her dreams a reality! She could have Celestia set up an interview or audition or whatever with the Wonderbolts at any time! She clearly doesn't know how to use her resources to her best use. This is why she needs me. She and I will help each other reach our destinies…and nothing will stand in my way. Nothing…" _

Twilight gasped. "What did you say to her?"

"Not much. She passed out right after that." Cloud Kicker rolled her eyes. "That's when I dragged their rumps back out…well, Trixie might have had an encounter with a black marker, but that's another matter. You know what I said earlier about old soldiers having one of two reactions? Well, it's the same way with drunks: either you say things that you don't mean because you're hammered or being drunk lets you say all the things that you believe but don't necessarily say. With Trixie, I knew it was the second."

The lavender pegasus snorted. "I guess Trixie recalled enough to realize how many beans she had spilled to me so she made sure never to let her guard down around me like that again. I tried to talk to Rainbow about the stuff Trixie said but Trixie denied it and I had no proof. Rainbow Dash didn't believe me...maybe she didn't want to believe anypony she was friends with could be capable of being so nasty and self-involved. I don't know."

We had some fights about it, major ones. I tried to pressure Trixie to leave us alone, but she went to my commanding officer at the Academy and claimed that I 'made inappropriate advances' on her when I was drunk. Given my reputation for chasing flank and Trixie's skills as an actor, it didn't take much. I was confined to West Hoof for three months while Trixie sunk her hooves even deeper into Dash, convincing her that she had to sell herself more. Rainbow was never what you would call an excessively modest pony like Fluttershy, but under Trixie's influence she got worse. Much worse." Cloud Kicker rubbed her head. "I tried to tell her that nag was going to ruin her life but she refused to believe me...or believe that Trixie had gotten me in hot water with my CO. It was an ugly couple of months until Trixie found out about some opportunity in Hoofington that she just had to leap on, thank Celestia. I tried repairing things with Dash after Trixie left, but she never believed me about her and thought I was being obsessive. I eventually just had to drop it and we avoided the whole 'Trixie Question' for the duration."

A few months later I dropped out of West Hoof and moved to Ponyville. And that's about everything." She gave Twilight an unhappy sigh. "Now you know who Trixie is: she's possessive, manipulative and jealous of Rainbow Dash for having everything Trixie wants without having to sink to her levels to do it. Sometimes I even wonder if Trixie actually LIKES Rainbow Dash or if she just wants her as a show prop."

"Do you really think so?" Twilight asked worriedly.

Kicker shrugged. "I don't really know…I guess there's some actual affection there. Just…a really messed up kind. But here's what I think…" The pegasus stretched her neck, trying to get the kinks out. "I think Trixie has rationalized everything she's done as being necessary to get to where she is today. That because she ended up a success, she thinks that everything she did to get there was justified—running away from her family, stealing tricks from other magicians, using other ponies to advance…"

Twilight nodded. "An action that turns out to be correct is not the same as proof that you acted correctly: the third law of Graymane the Wise."

Kicker blinked owlishly. "Uh, sure, why not. Trixie has this…really warped worldview, I guess you could call it. She thinks that if you have a great talent, then you have this destiny and anything you do that helps you achieve it is okay." Cloud Kicker paused to let Twilight absorb that.

The purple unicorn shook her head, her eyes wide. "But that's just…just unfettered egotism! The idea that your own personal happiness and wellbeing is your main purpose in life, regardless of what you have to do to achieve it…that sort of idea can be used to justify anything a pony does!" Then something else clicked. "And when she finds a talented, successful pony who DOESN'T operate that way, like Rainbow Dash…"

"Trixie gets nasty." Cloud Kicker agreed.

Twilight nodded. "That's it! It all makes sense! She can't stand the idea that her way ISN'T the only way—that there are ways to succeed without sacrificing other ponies along the way. If she accepts that, then she'd have to wonder how much of her past decisions were a mistake and her ego won't let her do that. She can't and won't accept the idea that she might have been wrong. And if comes down to realizing that how reality works is different from how Trixie THINKS it works—then it's reality that has to change." She closed her eyes as she thought back to something Applejack related to her after the Nightmare Moon incident. It was something Fluttershy had told Applejack about Rainbow Dash.

"_Rainbow Dash…um, well she makes you believe: in her and in yourself. She can stand up and announce that she's going to do something dangerous, impossible and even a little, um, crazy and you believe that she can really do it. She's not one of those ponies who brags about doing great things that they've never done—she goes out and does it." Fluttershy closed her eyes. "Even when you think she's being irresponsible and impossible, you want her to succeed, against the odds. And then she does it and it makes you believe that you can do the impossible too."_

_She opened her eyes, shifting about slightly. "But it's not what she represents that I became friends with. I became friends with her. I know she puts up a bold front, but she is one of the most steadfast and brave friends ever. Rainbow Dash would never let a pony down when they really needed her. She's held me up for so long and never deserted me. I heard somepony say that when strong ponies fall—the kind who've held you up for so long—they fall harder under the weight they've been carrying for us. That's why I'm here for her."_

Twilight was only half aware that she spoke out loud when Cloud Kicker nodded. "Couldn't have put it better myself. That pretty much comes down to the difference between her and Rainbow Dash." Cloud Kicker added. "Yeah, they both have egos and are very competitive but what makes them so similar is what also sets them apart." She sat up, looking Twilight in the eye. "As much as she loves competitions and winning and being the best, it's not the most important thing to her: loyalty is. She stood up for Eepy—Flutershy—back at flight camp even though she was a pretty weak flyer. If RD was like Trixie she would've have been caught dead hanging around her. Not Rainbow though. She did it for Ditzy too, even though she was older than all of us, but even the foals made fun of her eyes. Rainbow likes being tough and strong…not just for its own sake, but because she likes being able to stand up for weaker ponies—she likes how it makes her feel and also because it's just the right thing to do. She might get annoyed at Fluttershy's meekness or Ditzy's scatterbrained nature…or what I do with my personal life...but don't let that fool you. She'd sooner nosedive into Ghastly Gorge than let anypony down. Which is actually part of the problem here since she considers Trixie a friend. She's trying to avoid having to choose between friends. She feels loyalty to all of us and it's driving her crazy that we can't all smile and get along."

Twilight sat still, thinking. Cloud Kicker went on. "As annoying as her competitiveness and ego might get at times, Rainbow Dash is one of the great friends a pony could have. She always says what's on her mind, usually even when she should think on it a bit more; she's always got your back and she won't hesitate to throw herself into danger for a friend's sake." CK took a sip of her water and cleared her throat. "For all her magic and bragging, Trixie has all of Rainbow's faults—magnified to the nth degree—and none of her virtues. Or really, any virtues."

"Aren't you exaggerating a little?" Twilight prodded.

"Not nearly as much as she does." Cloud Kicker grumbled. "Ugh, fine, whatever. So anyway, now you know the whole story. Question is, what do you do now?"

"I don't know how…but we're not going to let Trixie ruin Rainbow Dash's life or her friendships!" Twilight vowed, stomping her hoof down emphatically. "One way or another we are going to fix this!"

Cloud Kicker pumped her hoof in the air as she hovered off the ground. "Yeah!"

"YEAH!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she stuck her head in through the open window. "WHY AM I CHEERING, I DON'T KNOW, BUT YEAH!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "Um, what're we talking about?" She blinked at the sight of Cloud Kicker and Twilight Sparkle sitting on the couch together. "What're you two doing?"

"Cloud Kicker and I were discussing the details of Trixie's evil plot..." Twilight started when Cloud Kicker suddenly fell backwards onto the couch, clutching her stomach and laughing.

Pinkie paled as she gasped at all the horrific implications. "This is worse than I ever imagined having my worst nightmare about! I—I gotta lie down for a bit." She slowly lowered her head down until she disappeared from sight.

Twilight blinked. "What was that all about?" Cloud Kicker couldn't stop laughing long enough to answer. The purple unicorn put it out of her mind. "Look out Trixie, here I come!" Twilight ran out of Cloud Kicker's house and into the streets. Her hooves thumped against the ground as she ran through the streets. Ponies leaped back to avoid being run over, but Twilight barely noticed them. Her mind was a blur as she did what she did best: make a plan.

Twilight Sparkle trotted through the streets of Ponyville with a determined glint in her eye. She was a mare on a mission! Cloud Kicker trotted just a little bit behind her, not sure of what she was up to. "Twilight? Care to fill me in?"

"No time!" Twilight called back. "You go look for Rainbow Dash. I'm going to talk to the Applejack and Rarity. Let me know where she is, but don't talk to her yourself. Let me do it." She paused and turned her head. "Um, thanks for telling me about what happened. I think it'll really help." She gave the free-spirited pegasus a smile. "I can see why Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy think you're such a good friend."

"Wow, I must be losing my touch." Cloud Kicker joked. "I mean, you took the drinks I gave you without checking for alcohol. Does that mean we're becoming friends?"

Twilight flushed. "Cloud Kicker..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I making you nervous? If you want you can tie me up if that makes you feel safer. I got ropes in my closet." The flirty pegasus teased, her eyelids fluttering as Twilight's cheeks reddened.

"C-c'mon," She rubbed her blushing face.

Kicker cooed at her. "Awww…you're blushing! So cute! It's like a little pair of ripe red cherries, ready for plucking!" She lowered her voice to gently breathe in Twilight's ear. "And speaking of cherries…"

A feeling of incredible heat rose in Twilight's face. "I—ohlookoverthere!" She pointed at a familiar white pegasus. "Isn't that Blossomforth?" As soon as Kicker's gaze flickered away, Twilight closed her eyes and teleported herself away from the embarrassment- and innuendo-spewing machine that was Cloud Kicker.

It was more by luck than by design that when Twilight reappeared, it was at Sweet Apple Acres. She swayed woozily on her hooves as she took time to recover from the side effects of a hasty, unplanned teleport. "Twilight?" She turned just in time to see Applejack trotting over to her. "You okay, sugarcube?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. I'm just a little woozy."

Applejack gently guided her over to the shade of an apple tree. "Why don't you rest a spell here with Rarity while I get you something to drink. Apple juice okay, or would you prefer water?"

Twilight's eyes flickered over to the white unicorn sitting underneath the branches of the tree atop a thin blanket and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. "Rarity?" She hadn't even noticed she was there. "Um, no thanks Applejack. I'm okay, really. Besides I just had a drink with Cloud Kicker and…" Applejack groaned suddenly.

"Aww sugarcube, didn't you check to see if it was spiked first? Tell me you didn't end up going for a roll in the hay with her."

With a martyred groan Twilight felt her cheeks light up for the second time in as many minutes. "It wasn't that kind of drink and it wasn't—! We were on the couch the whole time! Wait no- w-we were just talking about Trixie's plot! About DASH DASH! Trixie's plot with Dash! GAH!" Twilight facehooved, her cheeks glowing brighter than her horn ever did. Why couldn't she have some dignity? She'd really like some.

"Twilight dear, calm down." Rarity got up and walked over, gently leading the furiously blushing into the shade. "Have a seat where it's nice and cool." She shot Applejack a look. "Honestly darling, you know Twilight well enough that she would never be so…crass…as to give up her, um, virtues as easily as that."

Having the grace to look abashed, Applejack rubbed the back of her head. "Er, heh. Guess not. Sorry, Twi."

"It…it's okay." Twilight said weakly as she waited for her cheeks to cool down. "We—Cloud Kicker and I—were actually talking about Trixie. I was going to see Rainbow Dash next, but I wanted to see how you two were doing first."

"How we're doing?" Applejack tried to smile but it soon turned into a grimace. She sighed. "Feeling lower than a snake's belly, that's how."

Rarity nodded stiffly. "I must agree with Applejack. Everything…everything's just gone all to pieces! First my Sweetie Belle and now with Rainbow Dash—"

"Getting into a fight with Trixie didn't help." Twilight pointed out, not unkindly. "I was a bit surprised at you, Rarity. I didn't think you'd be the kind to, well…"

"Grapple in the streets like some ruffian?" Rarity sniffed, her cheeks flushed. "It's positively mortifying…but it's just—ooh that Trixie!" She fumed. "After Rainbow Dash left I went to speak to Sweetie Belle about her…interesting dress design. She said—" Rarity lowered her head. "—that she had wanted to be a great fashion designer like me…but if all I cared about were dresses then Sweetie Belle would have to find a new big sister like…like…"

"Trixie?" Twilight supplied.

Rarity stamped her hooves on the ground. "Do _not_ say that name in front of me!" She burst into tears. "She took my sister from meeee!" Applejack gave her a comforting nuzzle.

"I'm so sorry." Twilight said softly as she nuzzled her from the other side. "But you still shouldn't have hit her."

"I _know _I shouldn't have!" Rarity's lower lip wobbled, prompting her to delicately bite down on it. "But she just…it's like she has this trick for saying exactly the right thing in exactly the right manner in order to provoke a response. I couldn't ignore it!"

"Like a mosquito bite on yer backside." Applejack compared unflatteringly. "Ah still cain't talk to Apple Bloom. She's locked herself in her room convinced that she has to choose between staying with her family or growing up and getting her Cutie Mark. And that if she gets an apple Cutie Mark what like the rest of the family has—" She snorted angrily. "Then that means that she ain't special. All on account of that _no_ account Trixie!"

Twilight felt her heart breaking. "Oh Applejack…Rarity…I'm so sorry. Don't worry, I'll talk with Rainbow Dash. We'll...we'll make it right, somehow. I promise."

Just as her two friends started to brighten, Twilight heard a sound that chilled her very soul. "Hey Twilight!"

It was Cloud Kicker.

Gulping nervously, Twilight turned to greet the incoming pegasus. "H-hello Cloud Kicker. Sorry for leaving so fast. I just really want to—"

"I found Rainbow Dash." CK said, foregoing the need to tease Twilight for the moment. "She's over on the other side of Ponyville. You can't miss her."

"Thank you!" Twilight beamed widely. "I—I'll make this up to you later!" She was so pleased she leaned and gave Cloud Kicker a brief nuzzle of gratitude—prompting Rarity and Applejack's jaws to drop. "It'll be okay everypony, you'll see!" Then Twilight closed her eyes and teleported out.

The three remaining ponies just stood there, looking at one another and the spot where Twilight had just vanished from. "So…" Cloud Kicker said to fill the void. "Did you know Twilight uses tongue?"

Rainbow Dash, seeking to leave the drama of the day down on the ground, had found shelter in a stray cloud where she could properly think of a mature way to—oh fine, she was sulking, happy?

Though really, who could blame her? Dash thought. Her friends were at each other's throats and they were all trying convince her that the other was the problem. She leaned over and stuck her head into the cloud. This was so infuriating!

"Rainbow Dash?" She heard her name being faintly called, despite having cloud in her ears. She did her best to ignore it as she really wasn't in the mood. "Rainbow Dash, I know you're up there!" The voice was louder now, closer. It sounded like…

"Twilight?" Rainbow mumbled into the cloud. She buried her head in deeper, like an ostrich. "Uh no it isn't! Beep beep. I'm a cloud!" She paused. "…you're not buying this, are you?"

"Sorry." Twilight deadpanned. "I mean, it was a convincing cloud impersonation if it weren't for the fact that your rainbow-tailed rump is sticking up for everypony to see. Otherwise it was flawless."

Rainbow felt her cheeks flush at the image she must've presented as she pulled her head out of the cloud. She shook off any remaining stray bits before peering over the side at her. "Hey, Twilight…what's up? Besides me that is." She chuckled weakly.

Twilight had debated on the way here on how to best proceed with this talk. She figured with Rainbow, blunter was better. "I spoke with Cloud Kicker."

"Oh…" Rainbow sat back. Twilight frowned.

"Yeah, 'oh.'" She took a breath. "Rainbow…"

But Rainbow Dash forestalled her by holding up her hooves. "Twi, wait…I-I need to say something." Her wings twitched nervously. "I'm sure after listening to CK that you're probably wondering why I would be friends with a pony like Trixie." Twilight nodded.

"The thought HAD crossed my mind." She admitted. "Does this mean you believe her now?"

"I don't know, okay? I. Don't. Know." Rainbow ground out. "Just listen, okay?"

"Sorry." Twilight apologized softly.

Dash huffed but then let it out. "Yeah, sorry…kinda on edge lately." She chuckled. "Where was I? Oh yeah, why I'm friends with Trixie; it's a bit hard to explain. I mean it's like…I like that you guys are supportive and caring and cool and stuff. You're great, really. But I like that with Trixie I can…you know, go all out without being afraid of hurting somepony's feelings because I know she's not holding anything back either. It's…" she shuffled awkwardly. "It's like I have to hold back or play a part when I'm with the ponies around here: you, the others, Dinky, my co-workers; so I can be a good supportive friend, a godmom, a weather chief or whatever. But with Trixie I can just be _myself_. I don't have to hold back or be afraid of upsetting anypony. I-I don't know what I'd do if I lost that."

Twilight said nothing. She tilted her head up and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed as a matching colored aura surrounded the cloud Rainbow Dash was sitting on. It gently settled down on the ground. Rainbow hopped off so Twilight could walk up to her, as she expected. She didn't _quite_ expect the normally reserved unicorn to pull in her a fierce hug.

"Rainbow Dash…you never have to be afraid of showing us who you really are: we already saw it, out there in the Everfree, the night Nightmare Moon returned." Twilight said gently as she held her. "Who you are is a wonderfully loyal friend. I don't think you're pretending at all when you're with us or Dinky or anypony else. You're always you…for better or worse." She teased gently.

That made the pegasus snort unexpectedly in amusement. "Oh ha ha," she grumbled, but a smile threatened to break through. "But I feel like I have to _try_ so much harder when I'm around Dinky or the weather team. I guess I'm afr, er—I'm _concerned_—that if I just do what comes naturally I might be a bad influence or a bad boss. You know me, I just like to _do_ things without trying to think about every little thing ahead of time."

"I've noticed." Twilight said dryly, chuckling. She hugged Rainbow tighter. "But re-thinking and applying yourself more to specific roles doesn't mean that they aren't part of who you are. I've seen you with Ditzy and her family: there's nothing artificial, nothing fake there. And just because some ponies would like it if you bragged a little less or were a bit more considerate, it isn't the same as them not wanting you to be yourself." She gave her a kind nuzzle. "If it comes down between choosing you, flaws and all, and you being somepony you're not, we'll pick you every time." She smiled. "No matter how loud, how bragging…"

"Uh, Twi?"

"…cocksure, hot-tempered, hot-headed, lazy, show-offy…"

"Twilight!" Rainbow frowned and started to pull away before she noticed the tell-tale smirk on the purple unicorn's face. "HEY!"

She giggled. "Sorry," Twilight apologized, a smile on her face. "I couldn't resist."

Rainbow Dash's frown lasted only half a second. "Heh, good one. So's this!" She grabbed Twilight's head and stuck in under her foreleg, then proceeded to give her the biggest noogie she could.

"EEEE! Ack! Rainbow!" Twilight whined as her mane was thoroughly messed up. "Quitit Rainbow!" After a good half-minute, Rainbow Dash stopped and let Twilight catch her breath. She panted. "Feeling…better?"

The cyan pegasus tapped her hoof against the side of her face in apparent deep thought. "Yup." She pronounced. "Heh, thanks Twilight."

"Well, all kidding aside, we like you for who you are." Twilight said again. "All of us have traits that, well, annoy other ponies. They're part of what makes us who we are. I know that Rarity's fussiness or Fluttershy's nervousness or Pinkie's…whatever…get on your nerves sometimes; mine too for that matter. And don't get me started on that know-it-all purple unicorn." Twilight grinned. "But that doesn't mean we're any less friends, does it?"

"Not a chance." Rainbow gave her a tight squeeze in return. "Thanks Twilight. Really."

After a moment Twilight hesitantly nudged Rainbow. "So…do you know what you're going to do about Trixie?"

"…I…I don't know." Rainbow Dash repeated. "I know she's arrogant and stuck up and a bit of a pain..." Twilight nodded in emphatic agreement. "But…" Rainbow added. "She's still my friend. I can't leave a friend hanging, you know that."

Twilight sighed, but nodded. "I understand…you wouldn't be Rainbow Dash if you did."

Dash smiled wanly. "Yeah…if I can ditch one friend, what's to stop me from ditching the rest of you guys? Besides, Trixie's not that different than me."

Shaking her head, Twilight took a step closer. "You're wrong. She's _nothing_ like you. You both might brag and show-off, but you're the most loyal pony I know. Trixie isn't. I don't think you understand what Trixie is really like. She isn't a good pony who just brags a bit. It goes beyond having a big head or an ego the size of Manehattan: she's selfish, manipulative, possessive, jealous and _cruel_." She bit her lip. "You said that you felt like you could only be yourself around Trixie…but what if she's the one hiding who she really is from you? What if I could show you for yourself what Trixie is like when you're not around? Would you believe me then?"

"…." Rainbow Dash turned away. She sighed before looking back at Twilight. "…what did you have in mind?"

_Twilight trotted into town, the last bit of her conversation with Rainbow Dash playing over in her mind. _

"_I don't know about this Twilight," Rainbow Dash swished her tail anxiously. "Are you sure there isn't some other way?"_

_The unicorn in question sighed but couldn't lie. "Probably…but I think this is the best one available to us. You need to see for yourself what Trixie is like when you're not around…the real Trixie."_

_Rainbow Dash groaned. "Ugh…fine. Go ahead. I—I trust you."_

_Twilight smiled gently as her horn started to shimmer. "Thank you Rainbow Dash. Don't worry. This won't hurt a bit…"  
_  
"TWILIGHT!" Somepony shouted in her ear. She shrieked and leaped into the air, her legs flailing as gravity took hold of her and she came crashing down in a heap, her face having a close encounter with the ground. "Hiya Twilight, whatcha doooing?" Pinkie Pie hopped around the fallen unicorn. "Is that fun, it looks like fun. Can I try too? Okay one, two, three go!" Pinkie buried her entire head in the ground without even having to bend her knees like a normal pony. It was as if her neck just _extended_ as far as it needed to go.

Twilight would have been surprised by this but she knew better. "…Pinkie," she mumbled around a face full of dirt. Pinkie's signature pink tail waved a little in acknowledgement that she heard her. "Why did you do that?"

"Hhmmhmh hmmph hmmmh!"

"…Pinkie, take your head out of the ground and THEN tell me." Twilight groaned as she sat up, idly spitting out some dirt that got in her mouth.

Her pink companion pulled her head out of the ground with an audible 'pop!' and sat on her rump. "Oh, okay! Um, what did I do?"

"You screamed in my ear!" Twilight snapped. "Why'd you do that?"

Pinkie giggled. "Cuz it's really funny when you yell and jump and then fall and go POOF!" She rolled on her back. "Isn't that just hilarious?"

"Incredibly." Twilight deadpanned. "Well, thanks for that Pinkie, but I should go—"

Pinkie shot up and gasped. "Twilight!"

Wincing, Twilight rubbed her ear. "Gaah! Pinkie, not again!"

"But your mane!" The pink pony pointed to it. "It's all not Twilight-y! What happened?"

Sure enough, Twilight's mane had been ruffled and matted all out of its normal shape. Part of it hung down covering about half her face while the top bit stood straight up in a series of spikes. "Rainbow Dash happened." Twilight explained curtly.

"Oooh. Rainbow Dash styles hair? Wait 'til Rarity hears!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around and examining Twilight's mane critically. "You look just like that one pony, whatshisname! Er, Doctor…"

"Who?"

"I'm trying to think, give me a minute."

Twilight rolled her eyes, well, the one that wasn't obscured by her mane anyway. "It's fine Pinkie, really. Have you seen Trixie?"

"Ya-huh," she nodded. "She was over at her carriage, stagecoach thingie."

After briefly thanking Pinkie, Twilight continued on her way. She strode through town intent on finding Trixie and not letting anything distract her. Fate it seemed had other plans.

She was walking past the Ponyville schoolhouse when she saw a sight that nopony ever wanted to see within a mile of a school: an ambulance. Her heart suddenly gripped with fear, Twilight ran over just as the ponies pulling the ambulance carriage started galloping off to the hospital. A small worried crowd had already gathered in front of the schoolhouse. On the front steps of the school sat a visibly shaken looking Cheerilee, a blanket draped over her shoulders by Nurse Redheart as she sat next to the beleaguered teacher, reassuring her.

Twilight teleported herself to the other side of the gathered ponies and headed up to them. "What happened?" She asked urgently. "Is everypony okay?"

Cheerilee shook her head and looked down miserably. "There's been an accident…Dinky's at the hospital."

Twilight's hoof flew up to her mouth. "Oh no…is it serious?"

Cheerilee bit her lip and let her head sink in shame. Her eyes brimmed with tears, making Twilight fear the worst. Redheart shook her head and comforted the overemotional teacher. "No, it wasn't anything serious." She said to Twilight, assuring them both.

The purple unicorn sagged, letting out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. "That's a relief…" she sighed. "What happened?"

"From what Cheerilee and the foals observed…" Redheart started, but Cheerilee held up a hoof.

"I can tell it." The teacher sniffled. "It was just after lunch. The foals were all outside for recess. I—I was trying to keep an eye on everypony but I…I couldn't…" She hiccuped.

Redheart rubbed Cheerilee's back. "It's okay, nopony blames you…"

Cheerilee's eyes were moist as she continued, not acknowledging either pony present. "Dinky was trying to pull this rock out of the ground with her magic. I-I think she was trying to impress Pipsqueak—he had stubbed his hoof on that rock. She kept huffing and straining herself but the rock wouldn't move. Some of the other foals wandered over to watch and Dinky ended up trying even harder! Her horn was glowing and she was getting upset and angry—I was just on my way over to tell her not to try so hard when there was this bright light and the rock just…exploded out of the ground and it—and it h-hit her in the _head_…" Cheerilee let out a low keening wail as she buried her face in the nurse's shoulder and started crying in earnest; not out of fear for the trouble she might be in, but for the sake of her students that she cared so much for who were now scared or in pain.

Redheart embraced the poor teacher and held her tightly. "It's okay Cheerilee, it's not your fault…Dinky's going to be fine." She looked up at Twilight. "The rock just grazed the side of Dinky's head. I doubt she'll need more than a stitch or two."

Twilight felt a tremble work its way through her body. "T-that's…" she gulped. "That's good to hear…that Dinky will be okay. Does her family know? Where are the other students?"

"They're in the classroom with one of the other nurses, checking for any bruises or shock. They're understandably upset, but okay." Redheart assured her. "We're contacting their parents now…Miss Doo is probably still on her mail runs so unless somepony happens to run into her..."

"Is there anypony with Dinky at the hospital? Her family, I mean." Twilight asked.

Redheart shook her head. "I don't know. I think her next emergency contacts are her sister, Sparkler; her neighbor, Carrot Top; and her god-mother, Rainbow Dash."

Twilight's eyes widened. Rainbow Dash… "I have to go!" She blurted out. "I—I'll make sure Rainbow Dash and her family get to Dinky...but before I go, I have to ask you a question Cheerilee." She waited for the emotional teacher to dry her eyes and look up. "You said Dinky was getting upset before the accident…what happened exactly?"

"W-well," Cheerilee thought. "She was mumbling at the rock then she started shouting at it. She sounded angry…the angrier she got, the brighter her horn and the rock seemed to get until…"

Twilight understood. "And that's when it happened?" Cheerilee nodded. "I suspected as much…I'll let you know how Dinky's doing in a bit." She turned and started galloping hard to the hospital.

If nothing else, Twilight thought ruefully, she was sure getting in her daily dose of exercise for the day. By the time it occurred to her simply to magic herself to the hospital, she was already at town square. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Twilight Spackle," came a familiar mocking tone from right in front of her, blocking her path.

Twilight snorted. "It's Sparkle and I don't have time for this…" she muttered, starting to walk around Trixie only to have her move in Twilight's way again.

"Really?" Trixie smirked. "Trixie thinks Spackle matches you better. Perhaps you'd like something more fittingly inane like Twilight Twinkle?" She snorted. "Or should that be Twilight Tinkle?"

While Twilight's cheeks did heat up, Twilight felt more annoyance than embarrassment. "Is that all you have?" She asked the obnoxious showpony. "You really can't find something else to annoy me about?" Twilight shook her head.

"If you like, Trixie can comment on that bird's nest you call a mane." She clucked her tongue disapprovingly at the mattered mess that obscured the left side of Twilight's face and stuck out in all directions.

Twilight shook her head. "Forget it, I'm leaving."

Trixie huffed, hating to be so easily brushed aside. "Trixie did not give you permission to leave!"

"That's probably because I didn't ask for it," Twilight retorted shortly. "Now will you just stop, for five minutes, just _stop_? I have to go, there was an accident—"

Trixie sniggered. "What, again? Does this happen when you're not even asleep?" She broke into peals of laughter. "That is _rich_! Rainbow Dash was right, you are hilarious!"

Twilight stiffened. "Rainbow Dash never said that." She said stiffly, turning around.

"Really?" Trixie practically purred. "I seem to recall her mentioning something about that when she was telling me all about your nighttime issues…"

"She never told you about that." Twilight fumed. "You were eavesdropping when she and I were talking behind your carriage back when we first met, admit it!"

Trixie chuckled, shaking her head. "Come now Twilight…Trixie has known Rainbow Dash for such a much longer time than you. Do you really think she has any secrets from Trixie? Especially such humorous ones? Rainbow Dash does love a good joke…and you're the biggest Trixie has ever seen."

Twilight was stone faced. "Dinky's in the hospital," she said bluntly. Trixie was left flat-hooved. "Care to guess why? I'll tell you…she was trying too hard to use her magic and tried to use her emotions to fuel her magical strength. Remember who taught her _that_ method?"

To give her some credit, Trixie at least had the grace to look abashed. Her face paled at the prospect of having put a filly in the hospital. Twilight revised her estimation of Trixie an infinitesimal fraction of a percent higher. Trixie shook her head. "I-It was just for training!" She blurted, trying to bluster her way out of any responsibility for this. "U-using emotions to fuel your magic—"

"—is irresponsible, dangerous and the first thing any unicorn worth their horn teaches their students _not_ to do!" Twilight interrupted harshly. "But you did! You didn't care if it was dangerous or if Dinky got hurt—you just wanted Dinky and Rainbow Dash to think that you were a better teacher than me…" She took a breath. "…and I have to know: why?" Twilight stepped forward, prompting Trixie to retreat half a step. "Why are you doing this? Why do you hate me? Why do you like making fun of me and trying to drive a wedge between Rainbow Dash and her friends?"

Trixie trembled, cornered and nervous. "Y-you stupid filly," she fleered. "You think this is about _you_? Trixie doesn't care at all about a stupid, nerdy, tiny-horned, bed-wetting excuse of a unicorn!" Her words were belied by the long list of adjectives and the hate-filled glare she was shooting at her. "T-trixie doesn't care if Rainbow Dash thinks that snot-nosed little you are the coolest unicorn she's ever met or one of her best friends ever, even though Trixie knew Rainbow Dash before you! Before any of you!" She stomped her hoof. "Trixie was the one who told Rainbow Dash to follow her dreams, to fight for her future! Instead she abandoned it to settle with a bunch of hickponies from Nowheresville and go off and have adventures with THEM and let them be her best friends i-instead of…of….me…"

In spite of herself, Twilight felt a twinge of pity. "Trixie…I'm sor—"

Trixie's eyes glinted murderously. "_No!_ You do not get to feel sorry for me! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Nopony pities me—ponies wish they _were_ me! When I'm done nopony in the world will want to even _know_ you! Not Rainbow Dash, not your friends, your family-not even you will want to know you!" She shrieked, so hysterical she didn't even care that she wasn't making any sense.

"Trixie stop!" Twilight tried to talk her down.

Trixie trembled. "I-Trixie is going to the hospital. She knows Rainbow Dash will be there. A-and Trixie will fix this! Everything will be perfect! Rainbow Dash will join Trixie and together we will become rich and famous and have everything we always wanted! I can give her that! Not you! Not you, Twilight Sparkle!" She spat venomously as she glared at Twilight, practically daring her to argue with her.

"I can't give Rainbow Dash everything she ever wanted." Twilight admitted softly, lowering her head. Trixie beamed. Twilight raised her head. "But we can give her what she needs: friends who'll stick by her no matter what. Other ponies have tried tempting Rainbow Dash by offering up her dreams on a silver platter in exchange for abandoning the ponies she cared about. They didn't like the response she gave them. I don't think you'll have any better luck."

Trixie fumed. Seeking to end their confrontation on her terms, she used her magic to create a smoke bomb. By the time Twilight cleared the smoke with her own magic, Trixie was already halfway out of sight, running to the hospital. Twilight sighed and closed her eyes as she readied her own magic. She knew she had to be there when Trixie arrived. Twilight just hoped things would turn out better than she was expecting them to.

But she doubted it.

Trixie barreled her way into the hospital, stopping only to ask what room Dinky Doo was in. She could still salvage this. This wasn't a complete and total disaster until—

"MUFFIN! Where's my muffin!" The doors slammed open with thundering boom. Ditzy Doo panted, having clearly just flown all the way across town to get here. "Where. Is. My. DINKY?!" She demanded, looking around at anypony and everypony. A frightened hospital staff member pointed down the hall. "Baby! Mommy's co-omiiiing!" Ditzy wailed as she took off, sending a flurry of papers and small items flying about in her wake.

Trixie closed her jaw, which she just realized had been hanging open, with a click and adjusted her hat.

Well, horseapples.

Moving at a more sedate pace, Trixie followed Ditzy to the room where Dinky was resting. She passed a large window pane that peered into the room. Dinky was pressed up against her mother in a massive hug. There was a circle of white bandages tied around her forehead. She didn't appear to be seriously injured…unless the nurses failed to pry Ditzy off of her before she suffocated her daughter.

Looking ahead, Trixie saw that the door to the room was opened…and Rainbow Dash was standing at the entrance, looking in. She sighed in faint relief. Twilight hadn't beaten her here. She could still explain everything, make it all right.

"Rainbow Dash, I came as soon as I heard!" Trixie began as Rainbow slowly turned to Trixie, her head lowered. "I'm so sorry." Trixie bit her lip. "Listen, I ran into Twilight on the way here. I think she might have been trying to teach Dinky some magic on the side and—"

"Save it." Rainbow Dash said in a harsh whisper, gently closing the door to Dinky's room.

Trixie blinked. "B-but…" She gasped as Rainbow Dash raised her head to glare at her. Trixie reared up, bringing a hoof up to her mouth as she shakily pointed her other at Dash. "What happened to your eyes?!" She blurted as she looked into Rainbow's furiously narrowed and angry eyes: one its typical magenta or reddish-pink color, the other a deep purple.

The same color as…Trixie realized it just as soon as Twilight Sparkle stepped out from behind the door. Her previously messy mane had been fixed, revealing that one of her eyes was now magenta. The same one that was purple in Dash's face.

"The spell of Shared Sight." Twilight said quietly, feeling a need to fill the sudden silence. "A temporary spell that allows the spell's caster to exchange one of their eyes with another pony's; this permits both ponies to see what the other experiences. Another spell can allow you to hear as well."

Trixie felt the blood draining from her face, growing pale as she shivered all over; suddenly cold. The only sound she could hear was her own strained breathing and her heart pounding in her chest. "I—I—Rainbow Dash…"

The cyan pegasus' eyes were filmed over with moisture, both her original and her borrowed one. "J-just shut up! Don't say anything!" She walked over to the wall and pressed her head against it. Hard. "I—grah! I can't even _look_ at you right now!"

"Y-you have to let me explain!" Trixie pleaded. "I did it for you!"

"You did it for yourself!" Rainbow Dash all-but roared at her, spinning around to face her. "What makes you think that I wanted you to torment and humiliate my best friends, try to provoke them, fill little fillies heads with nonsense that could get them hurt—all the while hiding under my wings and making me your accomplice? I recommended you to Ditzy! I _trusted_ you. Now Dinky's in the hospital, my friends are furious with me, my co-workers want me fired, and Ditzy'll blame me for this and probably throw me out and it's ALL. YOUR. **FAULT!**"

Trixie whinnied in distress and ran out, sobbing all the way.

Twilight walked over and gently placed her hoof on Rainbow's withers. "I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash."

"Why should you be?" Rainbow's voice quavered as she fought to remain angry. Being angry was better than being all…wimpy and sad. "You were right. Trixie's a lying, cheating…jerk! I'm better off without her…I hope I never see her again!"

Twilight shook her head. "Oh Rainbow…this isn't what I wanted to happen." She gave her friend a quick nuzzle. "We both saw how upset she was when she spoke to me…how afraid she was of losing you. I don't think she has any other friends and was terrified at the prospect of being alone."

"S'er own fault." Rainbow mumbled, blinking rapidly to hold back any tears that might try to slip past.

Twilight sighed. "Rainbow Dash…I think you need to go talk things out with Trixie. You can't let it end like this."

"Why not? She was…just awful to you guys." She looked up at Twilight. "Especially you. A-and I just let her…"

"That wasn't your fault. Dash, after learning how wonderful it is to have friends I don't want to be responsible for breaking up a friendship. Please, if not for Trixie, then for me?"

"Twilight…" the pegasus sighed, trying to find the right way to say no.

Twilight shook her head. "I'm serious about this Rainbow. Look, you said you feel responsible for all the horrible things Trixie said and did to me? Fine. Then consider this your way of making it up to me. You owe me."

"Hrrrrnnng." Rainbow groaned. She looked back through the window. "…what about Dinky? And Ditzy? I-I can't just bail on them. Not now…"

"I'll stay with them." Twilight promised. "They won't be going anywhere for a bit." She smiled as she tilted her head to the warm scene before them. "Dinky is _fine_; just tired from all the excitement. They'll still be here when you get back. Trixie won't be. Please, do this for me?"

"…okay." Rainbow said softly. "Thanks Twilight. For…for everything."

"It's okay." Twilight smiled back. "What are friends for?"

Trixie galloped back to her carriage, hastily using her magic to push the stage back in. She was frantic. Everything had gone wrong! She had to get out of here, had to get away—

"Where do you think you're going?" A familiar raspy voice demanded. Trixie gasped and looked up. Rainbow Dash hovered over her, hooves crossed. "Did you really think you could outrun _me_ in that rickety-old cart?"

Sweating bullets, Trixie quickly summoned her magic to push Rainbow Dash away as she galloped fast in another direction, any direction!

"Oh come on!" Rainbow landed right in front of her. "You don't think you can outrun me by cart so you try to do it on hoof? Are you serious?"

Trixie turned and ran down an alley between two houses. Rainbow Dash was already waiting for her, stretching her hooves and yawning. "Oh, what kept you?"

Growing increasingly panicked, Trixie fled down streets, between houses and through lawns as she tried to get away. She stopped to catch her breath under the fountain in the town square, panting heavily. Trixie looked around.

No sign of Rainbow Dash coming from any direction. Trixie wiped her face clean of any perspiration and sighed. "Thirsty?" She looked up to see Rainbow perched on top of the fountain, a glass of water balanced on her hoof. "Want a drink?"

Trixie let out a wail of despair as she tried to flee again. Her pegasus pursuer just sighed. "Okay, this is getting old." She flapped her wings and zoomed off after Trixie, tackling her to the ground. "Gotcha!"

The blue unicorn squirmed beneath her, trying to get free. "Gerroff!" She said, her face pressed against the ground. "Lemme go!"

"Not until you talk to me!" Rainbow Dash grunted. "So start talking or I start getting comfy!"

"Fine!" Trixie gasped. "I—I won't run. I promise."

"…Don't know how much a promise from you comes from anymore." Rainbow did let Trixie up though. "The second I see you eyeing for a place to bolt to, I will grab you and finish the conversation in the air. Got it?" Seeing a nod, Rainbow stood back to let Trixie talk.

"T-trixie, I mean I…" Trixie deflated. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Dash's tone was clearly incredulous. "Well isn't that just convenient? You come into town, immediately start disparaging everything about it, do your best to make my friends miserable and teach Dinky unsafe magic and you don't even know why?" She glared. "You know exactly why you did it; and I wanna hear you say it. Straight from the pony's mouth."

Trixie looked balefully at her, her eyes moist. "Fine!" She choked out. "You were the only pony that understood Trixie! The only one who knew what it meant to work and struggle for a dream that other ponies laughed at! A-and I knew we were destined for greatness—together! But then you abandoned Trixie…"

"I abandoned you?! Get over yourself!" Dash snapped. "As I recall, _you_ left Canterlot because you wanted to take your show on the road to build up more of a name for yourself!"

"You didn't come with me!" Trixie sniffled. "Y-you stayed behind…I thought we agreed…"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, you agreed! This is the way it's always been! You make these plans involving me but never bother to ask if it's what I want and just assume I'll go along with it—then when I don't you try to beg, bribe, or pressure me into going along!"

"But…we were going to be famous…" Trixie mumbled in disbelief. "Who wouldn't want that? I know you do…"

"Yeah but I—I don't want it like that! Not it if costs me everything else!" Rainbow Dash walked around her in a circle. "I want to join the Wonderbolts and it would be totally awesome if we could combine your magic with my flying. You're right about that. But I'm my own pony. That means I make my own choices _without_ you going behind my back to make them for me or trying to drive my friends away! You don't have a monopoly on me Trixie!"

"You owe Trixie!" Trixie blurted without thinking. "You have everything that Trixie wanted and you never even had to try! I worked so hard and…and…it's not fair!"

Rainbow Dash flared her wings angrily at the slander that she never had to work to get where she was but instead pressed Trixie on something else. "So what, that's your excuse for thinking that I somehow owe you? For somepony who's always bragging about how you managed to make it big without any help, you sure seem to feel entitled to get whatever you want! You can't have it both ways!"

Trixie furtively flinched and started to slink down. Rainbow rubbed her temples, trying to ward off a headache she knew was coming. "Look….that stuff you did to Twilight? That was cruel. I don't mean 'stuff dumb little foals say to each other on the playground because they don't know any better.' I mean, _vile_. I don't care if you were jealous of Twilight or afraid that she was 'stealing me,' nothing gives you an excuse to talk that way to her. Nothing." She snarled, then stomped her hoof as she tried to control her anger. "That she still wants to see if we can somehow salvage our friendship makes her, like, a hundred times cooler than you."

"S-she does?" Trixie asked nervously.

Dash nodded. "Yeah…Twilight says she doesn't want our friendship to be over because of what happened. She feels guilty because she thinks her friendship with me ruined the one you and I had." She narrowed her eyes. "She's smart, but that's a load of horseapples. You did that yourself Trixie. Nopony else." Trixie flinched and looked down.

"I…I didn't want to be alone…" She mewled softly.

"Well, look where you've ended up." Rainbow put her hooves on her hips. "You brought yourself here Trixie. Even before I got a hunk of rock around my neck calling me an Element of Harmony, you knew how important being loyal to my friends was to me. And you tried to make me choose between you and them, _knowing_ how much it would hurt me. You acted horribly and hid behind me, trying to break up me and my friends. I'm not gonna forget that Trixie."

"I—I—" Trixie swallowed, her jaw wobbling as she said the two words she practically never said, at least not with any sincerity: "I'm…sorry…"

"Yeah, you are." Rainbow Dash snapped angrily. Then she deflated. "I'm sorry."

Of all the things Trixie expected to hear from Rainbow Dash, this wasn't by far the least likely. "Y-you are?" She felt a faint glimmer of hope.

"Yeah…I'm sorry that you have this…this just completely _wrong_ way of looking at things." Rainbow said, once again shattering Trixie's expectations. "I'm going to be a Wonderbolt…but I'm gonna do it without trampling on ponies along the way, or abandoning my friends. If you're intent on making it big, try it my way. Maybe we can talk; I'll even try to help. But if you keep going the way you've been…then this is where we part ways for good."

Trixie was silent. After a moment Rainbow Dash realized that she was trying to speak, but could only move her mouth. No sound seemed to be coming out. Trixie had to try several times before she could get out a single word: "Why?"

Rainbow deflated further. "Because as stupid and bitter and nasty as you've been…you're still a friend. We used to have a lot of fun together before you completely lost it. And I guess I just hate the idea of giving up on that. I'm a lot of things, but not a quitter." She paused. "Right now, the only thing you've got going for you is my word to Twilight that we'd try to work this out and the fact that you actually gave a flying feather about what happened to Dinky…not that I don't want to kick your rump about that, by the way." Trixie flinched. "But what happens now is up to you. You can either leave town now and never come back. I won't go chasing you…but that'll be the end of it." Dash took a breath. "Or…you can come back to town. Apologize, and I mean really apologize, take your lumps…and then we'll see how things go from there. What do you want to do? Do you want to have a shot at being friends or not?"

Once again, Trixie had trouble speaking. Her mouth would form shapes but it was if she couldn't command her lungs to speak them. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Trixie managed to choke out the hardest word she had ever had to say.

"Yes."

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_Hey C. Rainbow Dash here. I used to think that Twilight probably had more to learn about friendship than I did, especially since she never really had any before. But now I'm starting to think that having too many friends can be almost as challenging as having too few...especially when they don't get along. I always thought making friends was a snap but keeping friends, especially ones with different interests and goals, is a lot harder.  
_  
When Trixie and Rainbow Dash returned to the hospital, they found that word had spread and a number of ponies came with their foals to see to Dinky, including Applejack and Rarity; along with their little sisters. From the death-glares the two mares were shooting Trixie, they had already spoken to Twilight.

_The truth is that there are times when you realize that some friendships are built on a stronger foundation than others and not all friendships can be maintained. Sometimes you find out that somepony you thought was a friend was really a false-friend and that there's nothing you can do but let them go.  
_  
Trixie shrank down and tried to hide behind Rainbow Dash as much as possible. Rainbow just nodded to the two of them and gave Trixie a comforting nod. Hesitantly, hat in hoof, Trixie walked over to Applejack and Rarity and their sisters and began to apologize.

_This time though? I got lucky.  
_  
"Trixie…wishes to apologize." She fidgeted as she addressed Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "Trix—I—want you to know that there is no one way to get your cutie mark. It will reveal itself in its own time. You do not need to leave your sisters…who love you very much." She walked away, not waiting for a response as she went over to the next pony on her list: Twilight.

_When the walls came down and I got to see a glimpse of the real Trixie, I didn't like what I saw. I don't think she did either.  
_  
Trixie bowed her head underneath Twilight's glare. "I…am sorry Twilight Sparkle. I-I do not know what else to say."

_But even underneath all of her pettiness and arrogance, I still saw something there worth salvaging. Even more fortunately, she did too.  
_  
Trixie flinched as Twilight reached out…and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Then don't say anything. If you want to be a better pony who deserves Rainbow Dash's friendship, then _be_ that pony. Don't just talk, act." Cloud Kicker stood by, watching. She nodded in approval. Trixie looked furtively at Cloud Kicker as the lavender pegasus walked over.

Before she could even get a word in, Cloud Kicker winked at her. "You better behave there Trix. Cuz, I KNOW how to deal with ponies who've been…naughty." She slapped Trixie's rump with her wing, making the showmare squeak and blush. Twilight held a hoof over her face, trying not to make her amusement too obvious.

Eager to escape this scene, Trixie hightailed it to the hospital so she could apologize to Dinky.

_Trixie ruffled a lot of feathers. Honestly? I'm not sure I would've been able to forgive her, let alone even talk to her—if the others hadn't been willing to. And they were willing to because they didn't want to put me in the position of throwing a friend of mine out of town. They really are the greatest friends ever.  
_  
Trixie sat on the edge of Dinky's bed. The little filly only had to have two or three stitches put in. The wound would heal over completely, not even leaving a scar and would, in any case, be easily obscured by her mane. Listening to Trixie apologize, Dinky did what came natural to her: she got up and walked over to give her a hug. Shaking, Trixie hugged the foal back as her body wracked with sobs; touched by the sweet innocence of a filly she had needlessly risked.

_And while most ponies were willing to forgive Trixie, that isn't to say that there weren't…consequences.  
_  
The door to Dinky's room opened, alerting Trixie and Dinky to somepony walking in. "Hi momma!" Trixie's brow beaded with sweat as she slowly turned around. She quailed underneath Ditzy's furious glower.

"M-Miss Doo…" Trixie began.

Ditzy's eyes narrowed. "Outside. Now." She snapped her wing so fast that it cracked like a whip as she pointed outside. The unicorn hung her head as she meekly marched out. Ditzy closed the door behind them. She brusquely nodded to an empty room across the hall. Trixie gulped as she hesitantly walked into the room. Ditzy Doo gently closed the door behind her with a click. What followed was a series of loud smacks and yelping.

_Still, all things considered, I think things turned out well._

_Your most awesome and loyal student,_

_Rainbow Dash  
_  
As Rainbow Dash stuck her letter to the Princess in the mail, she noticed Trixie hobbling over towards her. "Hey Trix. How's it going?"

Trixie grumbled, grateful her cape was long enough to cover her red backside. "Fine." She said icily.

Rainbow shrugged. "Hey, Ditz is real protective of her daughter. You're lucky you're still in one piece. Still, since that's behind us, er, no offense, we can start fresh! Ha, just wait until Pinkie throws you a proper welcome party! Trust me it's—"

"I—I can't stay." Trixie forced out.

"—gonna be awesome." Rainbow finished weakly. "What? Why? I thought the point was for you to apologize so you could stay!"

She shook her head. "No…I wanted to stay your friend. But I don't think I can stay here. This…this is your life. I'd always feel like an outsider here, like I was intruding on something of yours. Even your friends, if they ever liked me, would be friends with me because you were friends with me. I want—I want to make some friends, on my own. I can't do that here…with you."

Rainbow felt her heart sink. "…oh."

"But I still want to be friends! I can come by and do some more shows with you and—and…" Trixie's face fell. "I'm sorry. I just…I just need something of my own. You were right; I did try to use you to advance my career and I don't want to do that again."

"That isn't the same thing!"

"It is to me!" Trixie shook her head. "Look…my mind's made up. I won't be gone as long this time, I promise. I'll swing back in time for Hearth's Warming Eve. Maybe I'll even have some friends for you to meet this time. O-okay?" She smiled encouragingly.

Rainbow sighed but knew she'd never talk Trixie out of it. "Sounds great," she agreed hollowly. "You, uh, may wanna get going. You know, before Pinkie throws you a greeting and a farewell party."

Trixie chuckled. "You're probably right. Never fear though, you have not seen the last of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She reared up, accompanied by a puff of smoke. By the time it cleared, Trixie was gone and her carriage was already on the move.

Rainbow Dash's eyes stung. Clearly from the smoke.

Clearly.

The cyan pegasus stood there for several minutes, just watching Trixie's stagecoach roll off into the distance. Then there was the sound of somepony clearing their throat behind her. Dash turned around.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash." Raindrops offered hesitantly.

"Hey, Raindrops." Rainbow returned with an uncomfortable smile.

Awkward pause.

"…nice weather we're having?" Rainbow offered lamely.

Raindrops nodded. "Could use a little more cirrocumulus laconusi." Raindrops critiqued then she grimaced. "So…I-I guess that's whoever you're hiring to replace me's problem, isn't it?"

Dash shook her head. "I'm not replacing you. You're not in any trouble." She paused. "Look I've had some stuff going on and…well…I get where you're coming from: it sucks to put your all into something only to have somepony else do it and make it seem like a snap without even trying. So, uh, I guess what I'm trying to say is….sorry?" She offered feebly, rubbing the back of her head. "If…well, if you want to come back, your job's still open. A-and, I guess I can try to not…um,"

"It's okay." Raindrops sighed, smiling slightly. "My way isn't the only way. If the work gets done and done well, then I guess I really shouldn't complain if your method is different than mine. Just…could you not rub it in?"

"You're asking for a lot you know." Rainbow said, half-jokingly. "But I'll try."

"…thank you." Raindrops said. "So, uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

Rainbow Dash started to agree when she paused. "Actually, I'm thinking about grabbing a bite to eat. Want to join me?"

Blinking in surprise, Raindrops nodded. "Uh, sure."

"Cool." The two started walking together. "I was also thinking about this epic prank on Cloud Kicker. You want in?"

Raindrops smirked. "Sounds like a plan."  
_  
P.S.  
Also, I learned that it's good to realize that different ponies have different methods of approaching things and that there isn't any one right way (well, there's my way but that's if you want it done fast and awesomely). But the best results come from different ponies with different abilities coming together to achieve their goal. And that's awesome too._

_-Rainbow Dash_

_P.P.S.  
One more thing: if you ever come into town? There's this one pegasus named Cloud Kicker who's been dying to meet you. Feel free to stop by her place and say hi. Just because.  
_  
& & &


End file.
